Abstract: It is well known that the patterns of dinosaur egg arrangement within the clutch differ from group to group (Young, 1965; Zhao, 1975, 1979; Zhao and Li, 1993). Some types such as elongatoolithid and hypsilophodontid eggs were laid regularly in nest. The long axis of these eggs forms certain angle with the ground (Plate I). But as for others, they were disorderly arranged in the nest. Zhao et al. (1994) advanced that dinosaur eggshells could be considered as rotational ' thin shell. When the dinosaur eggs were laid, and buried in sand for incubation, they were subjected to distributive pressure. Once the pressure comes to the critical value pcr , the eggshell will subside and then break. Here p cr is called the critical pressure of instability. It has been demonstrated that Variation between pcr of different kinds of dinosaur eggshells existed (Ma and Zhao, 1994). This suggests that arrangement patterns of dinosaur eggs in nests might have something to do with the eggshell ' s ability to resist external pressure. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between the pattern of egg arrangement in the nest and the critical pressure of its eggshell, and five types of dinosaur eggshells are available.

摘要： 应用薄壳理论分析五种类型恐龙蛋壳的受力特性，求出它们在不同状态下埋在沙土中的失稳临界载荷。结果表明，不同类型恐龙蛋在蛋窝中的不同排列方式是与其蛋壳的抗失稳能力的大小密切相关，是某些类群的恐龙在产卵时为解决其低强度蛋壳在保护卵不受外力损伤和在卵的孵化后期幼雏能够破壳而出这两方面的矛盾而采取的一种保护性措施。