Preserved Dinosaur Egg Found In China

Scientists have announced the discovery of a preserved Dinosaur egg in China, The embryo is believed to have been preserved for at least 66 million years.

The fossil was discovered in Ganzhou, southern China and belonged to a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur, which the researchers dubbed “Baby Yingliang.”

The egg is around 17 centimetres (7 inches) long and the dinosaur was estimated to be 27 centimetres (11 inches) long from head to tail.

The researchers believe as an adult, had it lived, it would have been about two to three meters long. They also studied the positions of Baby Yingliang and other previously found oviraptorid embryos.

They concluded that the dinosaurs were moving and changing poses before hatching in a way similar to baby birds.

The fossil was found in China’s Jiangxi province and acquired in 2000 by Liang Liu, a director of a Chinese stone company called Yingliang Group.

It ended up in storage, largely forgotten until about 10 years later when museum staff sorted through the boxes and unearthed the fossil during the construction of Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum.