Curled up in its egg as if it were a bird, the spine following the curvature of the shell, the head tucked under the belly. This is how the fossilized dinosaur embryo discovered in southern China appeared. It was renamed “Baby YingliangAnd it is an oviraptosaurus – a group whose name means egg thieves – a theropod “related” to birds. He lived on planet Earth approx 70 million years ago.
“Most of the dinosaur embryos are incomplete with the disjointed skeletons: we were very surprised to see this embryo perfectly preserved in its egg, in a posture similar to that of birds. It’s something that has never been seen in non-avian dinosaurs before, ”he said Waisum Ma of the University of Birmingham.
Baby Yingliang’s embryo is 27 centimeters from the head – folded under the belly and flanked by the legs – to the tail. The egg is 17 centimeters long. Oviroptosaurs – with skulls similar to that of parrots – had different lengths when they became adults: they ranged from the size of a turkey to eight meters, depending on the species to which they belonged.
“It looks like a small bird curled up in its egg, further proof that many features of modern birds first evolved into their ancestors dinosaurs,” he explained. Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh.
The fossilized embryo was recovered in Jiangxi province near Ganzhou city and was acquired by a company called Yingliang Group in 2000 and ended up in a warehouse. The recovery took place about ten years ago by the staff of the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in Xiamen, where it is preserved today. The fossil will be studied by experts in more detail. Part of the body is still covered by the rock.
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