Perfectly Preserved Dinosaur Egg Discovered in China

Archaeologists have unearthed a fossil of a dinosaur egg which is more than 70 million years old. Fossils of dinosaur eggs have been discovered and studied around the world for decades but what makes this discovery unique is the fact that this egg has been perfectly preserved.

According to details, the egg has been discovered in Ganzhou in southern China. It belongs to species of a dinosaur known as ‘oviraptorosaur’ which lived in Asia and North America during the Late Cretaceous period.

Archaeologists have nicknamed the egg ‘Baby Yingliang’ after the name of the Chinese museum where the fossil has been put on display. The egg is 7 inches long while the curled-up embryonic skeleton inside it is 11 inches long from head to tail.

Archaeologists believe that Baby Yingliang was preparing to hatch but a sudden mudslide prevent it from doing so, perfectly preserving the unhatched egg. Had it hatched and become an adult, Baby Yingliang would have grown up to three meters long.

Yingliang’s discovery has shed light on the link between dinosaurs and birds as it is widely believed that all birds directly evolved from two-legged dinosaurs.

The curled-up position of the dinosaur is known as ‘tucking’ and birds are known for doing it for successful hatching. Until now, this position was never documented in dinosaurs.

However, Baby Yingliang’s unique position has proved that dinosaurs also positioned themselves inside the eggs in a way that is similar to birds, indicating that birds adopted this behavior from their dinosaur ancestors.

Speaking in this regard, Darla Zelenitsky, Geoscience’s Associate Professor in Canada’s University of Calgary and part of the team that excavated the fossil in China, has said that bones of dinosaurs’ embryos were extremely fragile and only a handful are believed to be preserved like Baby Yingliang. However, it is the first time a perfectly preserved fossil of a dinosaur egg has been unearthed which makes it a very lucky discovery.