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References
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Acknowledgements
We thank D. E. G. Briggs for assistance with the manuscript, and M. Fabbri and J. Gauthier for suggestions.
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J.W., T.-R.Y. and M.A.N. discussed Shawkey and D’Alba’s concerns. J.W. designed and performed the experiments, analysed the data, and created the figure. J.W. wrote the manuscript, which was reviewed by all authors.
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Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Fig. 1 Crocodylus siamensis outer and inner eggshell surfaces.
a, The outer eggshell surface (n = 1), which contains the highest pigment concentrations in eumaniraptorans is uncoloured/white. b, c, The inner eggshell surface (n = 2) shows a reddish tint (b), which reflects chorioallantoic tissues and vascularity (c) protruding into the innermost layers of the eggshell. The inner eggshell surface in b is manually cleaned of adjacent chorioallantoic tissue, whereas the inner eggshell surface in c is left untreated. Chorioallantoic tissues (c) are commonly vascularized, and therefore saturated in blood-derived haem, which represents, when dechelated, protoporphyrin. In this case, traces of protoporphyrin recovered from Crocodylus siamensis eggshell would not be homologous with eumaniraptoran eggshell protoporphyrin.
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Wiemann, J., Yang, TR. & Norell, M.A. Reply to: Egg pigmentation probably has an Archosaurian origin. Nature 570, E46–E50 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1283-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1283-3
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