A well-preserved dinosaur embryo was found in a fossilized egg. The fossilized dinosaur embryo came from Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, southern China and was acquired by researchers in 2000.
According to a news release, researchers at Yingliang Group, a stone mining company, suspected that it contained egg fossils, but kept them for 10 years. When the construction of the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum began, the excavated fossil boxes were sorted out.
“Museum staff identified them as dinosaur eggs and saw some bones in one broken section of the egg,” Lida Singh of China University of Geosciences Beijing said in a news release. A hidden embryo was found in it, and they named it “Baby Inlyan”.
Embryos are bird-like Oviraptorosaurim embryos, Theropod group. Theropods mean “theropods”, but theropods’ feet usually resembled bird’s feet. Birds are descendants of one line of small theropods.
After studying embryos, researchers found that dinosaurs had a unique pushing posture before they hatched. This was thought to be unique to birds.The study is published at iScience Journal.
Researchers say this behavior may have evolved through theropods other than birds. “The most well-known non-avian dinosaur embryos are skeletally fragmented and incomplete,” said Wytham Maoff of the University of Birmingham, UK. Previously it was not recognized by dinosaurs other than birds. “
Fossilized dinosaur eggs have been discovered in the last 100 years, but researchers say in a statement that it is extremely rare to find well-preserved embryos.
Until now, embryonic postures have not been seen in dinosaurs other than birds. This is “especially noteworthy because it is reminiscent of late modern bird embryos.”
Researchers will continue to study rare specimens even deeper. They try to image the anatomy inside it. Part of its body is still covered with rocks. Their findings can also be used for more studies of fossil embryos.
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