So far I've only been looking at the prehistoric animals once they are mature, but what about their offspring? Was it best to lay a clutch of eggs and hope that some survive to create the next generation or is nurturing a small number of young to ensure they survive the ideal way to maintain populations. Amphibians in general are a good example of nature taking hold, for the survival of Modern day frog spawn, these eggs are incredibly vulnerable to both predators and environmental changed. Image credit vernalpool.org offspring. We've all seen frog spawn in a pond, in prehistory amphibian eggs would be rather similar to this. They need to be laid in water to prevent drying out but have no protective layer like a shell in order to allow for the movement of water across the membrane. This makes the eggs vulnerable, these unprotected eggs would have been preyed on by early arthropods, fish and even other amphibians, possibly to eliminate competition. To counteract the loss of eggs,...
