Rare dinosaur eggs containing well-preserved embryo discovered in China: ‘We were really surprised’

A group of international researchers made a special discovery in the mountains in southern China. They found a dinosaur egg with an embryo inside, perhaps the best preserved embryo of all time.

The curious thing about the story is that a dinosaur egg was not recently discovered in the mountains. It had been in a museum in Nan’an for over ten years, until a museum employee suddenly noticed that there were apparently bones sticking out of the shell. He wondered if there was another dinosaur inside, so scientists from the University of Birmingham were called. They made an amazing discovery: inside the egg there was a well-preserved embryo. ‘We were really surprised’ says Waisum Ma at the new World.

Inside the egg was the skeleton of a dinosaur, 24 centimeters long, in a bent position, with its head close to its body. The skeleton is very reminiscent of an oviraptorid: a dinosaur with legs, feathers, and a head resembling that of a bird.

The age of the egg is believed to range from 72 to 66 million years. According to him, the fact that it was still so well preserved after all this time had to do with the fact that it was buried in sand or mud. “Dinosaur embryos are hard to find, and certainly not intact.”