Abstract Among all of the dinosaurs, the Late Cretaceous oviraptorosaurs, in addition to troodontid dinosaurs, boast the best fossil records ranging from numerous eggs and embryos, seven clutch–adult associations, highly organized egg clutches, two gravid adults and possible colonial nesting grounds, to plenty of species described from skeletons from East Asia. These well-preserved fossils provided insights into the reproductive biology, ecology, behaviour and developmental biology of oviraptorid dinosaurs, contributing to several groundbreaking palaeontological discoveries in the last decade. Some of them received further support, while the others remain controversial, indicating that a comprehensive, rigorous re-examination using all available evidence is required. In a recent review, oviraptorosaurs were considered as an intermediate stage in moving towards the modern avian reproduction, whose reproductive biology can be inferred based on the avian model. With the new insights generated from the shell histology of several embryo-containing eggs and evidence from previous studies, this study offers a synthetic view of the reproductive biology of the Late Cretaceous oviraptorosaurs, illuminating the peculiar reproductive biology of oviraptorosaurs. In conclusion, oviraptorosaurs had an essentially unique reproductive biology lacking modern analogies. Thus, simply applying either avian or reptilian models to infer the biology of extinct animals appears inappropriate in the case of oviraptorosaurs.

During the last two decades, extensive paleontological research in the main Deccan volcanic province has led to a better understanding of biodiversity close to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Several infratrappean localities exposed in Jabalpur, Kheda, Balasinor, Rahioli, Dohad, and Bagh in the Narmada Valley (India) preserve one of the most geographically widespread dinosaur nesting sites known in the world. The well-studied intertrappean beds, such as those of Naskal on the southern margin, Asifabad and Nagpur on the eastern margin, Kisalpuri and Mohgaon Kalan on the northeastern margin, and Anjar on the northwestern margin of the main Deccan volcanic province, have yielded Maastrichtian fish ( Igdabatis ) and dinosaur remains and palynofossils ( Aquilapollenites - Gabonisporites - Ariadnaesporites ), either separately or in association, that suggest a Maastrichtian age for these beds. Only two intertrappean sections, Papro on the northern margin and Jhilmili on the northeastern margin of the main Deccan volcanic province, have produced Paleocene fossils. The fossil record from the infratrappean and intertrappean beds demonstrates that the dinosaurs survived the early phase of volcanism, though there was an apparent decline in their diversity, and that freshwater vertebrate fauna was least affected by the initial volcanic activity. The episodic nature of Deccan volcanism may possibly explain the survival of many freshwater and terrestrial communities during the periods of quiescence. In addition, as in the case of the late Maastrichtian sections in eastern Montana, North America, detritus-feeding freshwater vertebrate communities possibly had greater potential for survival than the terrestrial communities dependent on primary productivity. A close examination of the vertebrate faunal distribution across the two stratigraphic intervals (infratrappean and intertrappean) suggests that sampling bias in the infratrappean beds may have also masked the actual diversity of these beds.