Nest probably was a carnivore’s

Canadian researchers say they’ve narrowed down the likely owner of a dinosaur nest, abandoned on a river’s edge 77 million years ago, to two suspects. They say that the discovery offers a unique look at dinosaur reproduction and the evolution of birds.

The two small, carnivorous suspects are a caenagnathid, which looks somewhat like an ostrich, or a small raptor called a dromaeosaurid. Both are small by dinosaur standards, and related to modern birds.

The nest probably held as many as a dozen eggs, of which fossilized fragments remain.

Nests from meat-eating dinosaurs are extremely rare. Only one other example has been found in North America, a nest of 67-million-year-old Troodon eggs that was unearthed in Montana.