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Deeming, C. D. (2006) Ultrastructural and functional morphology of eggshells supports the idea that dinosaur eggs were incubated buried in a substrate. Palaeontology 49(1): 171-185. The ultrastructural characteristics of dinosaur eggshells indicate that the nesting environment had to be saturated with water vapour and that dinosaur eggs had to be fully buried in a substrate. In this sense, therefore, dinosaur eggs resemble more those of modern reptiles than those of birds. As a consequence, maintenance of incubation conditions would have depended on the prevailing environment.