The rarest fossil found in China: a whole dinosaur egg with an embryo inside

Scientists from China, Great Britain and Canada have published a scientific work in which they describe the egg of a 72-66 million-year-old theropod dinosaur found by paleontologists.
The uniqueness of this discovery is that the skeleton of the 27 cm long fetus is perfectly preserved in the fossil. The results of the research were published in the journal iScience.

The same discovery was made in southern China.

Scientists have also paid close attention to the position of the fetus – just like the chicks of modern birds.

The egg is called “Yingliang baby”. It was found in Cretaceous rocks in Ganzhou district.

Paleontologists easily identified its species by its distinctive toothless skull – it’s oviraptorosaurus, which represents the feathered theropod dinosaur closely related to modern birds.

The newspaper says in a press release: “Dinosaur embryos are among the rarest of fossils, and most of them are incomplete
The study authors added, “The discovery will help answer many questions about the growth and reproduction of dinosaurs.”