Scientists announced the discovery of a perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo that was preparing to hatch from the egg, like a chicken.
Perfectly nestled inside its egg, this dinosaur embryo was ready to hatch and hatch. The fossil was discovered in Ganzhou, southern China, and researchers estimate it to be at least 66 million years old.
Although the species has yet to be identified with absolute certainty, it is believed to be a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaurus, and has been named by scientists as Baby Yingliang. It measures 27 centimeters long from head to tail and rests inside a 6 centimeter long egg at the Yingliang Museum of Natural History, China.
According to Dr. Fion Waisum Ma, author of publication about the discovery in the journal Science, is “the best dinosaur embryo ever found”.
Researchers from China, the UK and Canada studied the positions of Baby Yingliang and other oviraptorid embryos found earlier. The discovery also allowed researchers to better understand the link between dinosaurs and modern birds. The fossil shows that the embryo was in a curled position known as “hustle”, which is a behavior seen in birds just before hatching.
Photo: Lida Xing et. to the. 2021
Oviraptorosaurs, meaning “egg stealing lizards,” were feathered dinosaurs that lived in what is now Asia and North America during the Late Cretaceous, between 100 and 66 million years ago.
Paleontologist Steve Brusatte, who was also part of the research team, tweeted that it was “one of the most impressive dinosaur fossils” he had ever seen, and that the embryo was about to hatch.
The fossil was found in the Chinese province of Jiangxi and was acquired in 2000 by Liang Liu, director of a Chinese quarry called Yingliang Group. It was stored and forgotten until about 10 years later, when museum staff rummaged through the crates and unearthed the fossil during the construction of the Yingliang Stone Museum of Natural History. The museum is subsidized by the company.
It was only after construction work on the museum began and the ancient fossils were separated that researchers noticed the egg, which they suspected contained an embryo.
Part of the dinosaur’s body is still covered in rock, and researchers will use advanced scanning techniques to create an image of its entire skeleton.
REFERENCE
An exquisitely preserved in-ovo theropod dinosaur embryo sheds light on pre-hatching bird postures
