Image source, AFP
Researchers say the egg may have been protected by a sudden landslide.
Scientists have discovered a dinosaur embryo that is preparing to give birth, just like animals such as chickens.
It was discovered in Kanzhou in southern China, and researchers estimate it is at least 66 million years old.
It is believed to have originated from the toothless Therop dinosaur or Oviroptosaurus. Experts call him Baby Yingliang.
One of the scientists involved in the discovery, Fion Wisam Ma, said this “The best dinosaur embryo ever discovered”.
The discovery also provided researchers with a better understanding of the relationship between dinosaurs and modern birds. The fossil shows that the embryo was in a spiral state called “folding”, a behavior that is seen just before the birds hatch.
“This marks the first time that such behavior of modern birds has evolved and evolved among their dinosaur ancestors.”Ma told the AFP news agency.
Oviroptorosaurs, also known as “egg-stealing lizards”, were feathered dinosaurs that lived in Asia and North America from about 100 to 66 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous.
Archaeologist Steve Brusatte, who was part of the study team, tweeted that this was “one of the most impressive dinosaur fossils ever seen” and that the embryo would hatch.
The baby Yingliang is 27 cm long from head to tail and rests inside a 17 cm long egg found in the Yingliang Stone Museum of Natural History in China.
The egg was discovered in 2000, but it was stored for 10 years.
It was only when construction began on the museum that the ancient fossils were classified, and researchers turned their attention to the egg, which they suspected contained a nucleus.
Part of the dinosaur’s body is still covered with rocks, and researchers will use advanced scanning techniques to create an image of its entire skeleton.2
Image source, Julius Sodony
Drawing a dinosaur embryo on an egg.
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