Perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo in a fossilized egg 66 million years old (vid)

British and Chinese scientists have discovered in southern China a perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo inside a fossilized egg. The fetus, which was about 66 million years old and was ready to hatch, was named “Baby Yingliang” and belongs to a species of toothless winged dinosaur, the oviraptorosaurus.

Dinosaur embryos are very rare fossils and are usually incomplete. This is the most complete dinosaur embryo ever found on Earth and proves that these dinosaurs took a bird stance during their incubation, similar to that taken by modern bird embryos.

The researchers, who published the article in the scientific journal iScience, estimated that the 27-centimeter-long fetus was coiled inside a 17-centimeter-long egg, while an adult of its kind probably reached two meters.

Bipedal viraptorosaurs lived in Asia and North America during the Late Cretaceous, 100 to 66 million years ago, and were both herbivores and carnivores.

It is noteworthy that the rare fossil was discovered in 2000, but was stored for years in a museum and until recently its significance was not realized.

Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news