A well-preserved dinosaur ossuary from 66 million years ago has been found | Wildlife Stories
The best-preserved embryos found in China were ready to hatch their eggs like chickens.
Scientists have announced that they have found a well-preserved dinosaur larvae about 66 million years ago that was preparing to hatch its egg like a chicken.
The oldest fossils found in Ganzhou, southern China, belong to the toothless dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur, which researchers called “Baby Yingliang.”
“It is one of the finest dinosaur fossils in history,” Birmingham University researcher Fion Waisum Ma, co-author of the paper in the journal iScience, told AFP on Tuesday.
Ma and her friends found Baby Yingliang’s head under her body, with feet on both sides and a curved back – a posture that was initially not seen in dinosaurs, but like modern birds.
In birds, this behavior is controlled by the central nervous system and is called “tucking”. Chicks that are preparing to hatch lower their heads under their right wings to keep the head steady while breaking the shell with their beaks.
Infants who fail to multiply have a higher chance of dying after a useless breach.
“This suggests that the behavior of modern birds evolved from their ancient dinosaur ancestors,” says Ma.
Another alternative to tucking was probably the closest thing seen by modern crocodiles, which instead have a head tilted to the chest until they break.
Forget about storage
Oviraptorosaurs, meaning “egg-stealing lizards”, were feathered dinosaurs living in what is now Asia and North America during the Late Cretaceous period.
It had the appearance of lips and a variety of foods and was growing from modern turkeys at the end of the giant Gigantoraptors, which was eight feet (26 feet) long.
Baby Yingliang is about 27cm (10.6 inches) long from head to tail and sleeps inside a 17cm egg (6.6 inch) – tall at the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum.
Researchers believe that the creature may have been between 72 and 66 million years old, and it may have been preserved by the silent mud that buried the egg, protecting it from predators for years.
It would have grown two or three feet (6.5- 9.8 feet) if it had grown, and would have eaten the seeds.
The pattern was one of several egg bones that were forgotten for centuries.
The investigative team speculated that they may have had unborn dinosaurs, and removed a Baby Yingliang egg shell to reveal a hidden embryo inside.
Professor Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, a member of the team of researchers, states: “The dinosaur larvae inside their egg are one of the most beautiful artifacts I have ever seen.
“This little creature that is born is like a little bird that has curled up in its egg.
The team hopes to study Baby Yingliang in more detail using advanced imaging techniques to view the entire skeletal system, including the skull bones because one part of the body is still covered with rock.
