The bones and eggs of a new 70-million-year-old dinosaur that resembled a flightless bird have been found in Patagonia, scientists say.

Palaeontologists said they expected the eggs, which were fertilised and well-developed, to help explain how birds evolved from dinosaurs.

Some of the eggs were probably still inside the mother dinosaur when she died - other eggs were nearby.

The new species, Bonapartenykus ultimus, is a member of the small, long-legged, fast-moving Alvarezsaurid dinosaur family, they report in Cretaceous Research.

Although the link to modern-day birds has been disputed in the past, palaeontologist Fernando Novas said the current batch of bones resembled the skeleton of the Nandu, a modern flightless bird of the Rhea genus, native to Patagonia.