Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #537

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A Dinosaur Embryo Has Been Found Inside A Fossilized Egg
By Caitlin O’Kane A well-preserved dinosaur embryo has been found inside a fossilized egg. The fos- silized dinosaur embryo came from Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province in southern China and was acquired by researchers in
2000.
Researchers at Yingliang Group, a company that mines stones, suspected it con- tained egg fossils, but put it in stor- age for 10 years, according to a news release. When construc-
tion began on Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum, boxes of unearthed fos- sils were sorted through.
"Museum staff identified them as dinosaur eggs and saw some bones on the bro-
ken cross section of one of the eggs," Lida Xing of China University of Geosciences, Beijing, said in a news release. A embryo was found hidden within, which they named "Baby Yingliang."
The embryo is that of the bird- like ovirap- torosaurs, part of the theropod group. Theropod means "beast foot," but thero- pod feet usually resembled those of birds. Birds are descended from one lineage of small theropods.
In studying the embryo, researchers found the dinosaur took on a distinctive tucking posture before hatching,
which had been considered unique to birds. The study is pub- lished in
the iScience jour- nal.
Researchers say this behavior may have evolved through non-avian theropods. "Most known non-avian dinosaur embryos are incomplete with skeletons disarticulated," said Waisum Maof the University of Birmingham, U.K. "We were sur- prised to see this embryo beautifully preserved inside a dinosaur egg, lying in a bird-like posture. This pos- ture had not been recognized in non-avian dinosaurs before."
While fossilized dinosaur eggs
have been found during the last 100 years, dis- covering a well- preserved embryo is very rare, the researchers said in the release.
The embryo's posture was not previously seen in non-avian dinosaur, which is "especially notable because it's reminiscent of a late-stage mod- ern bird embryo."
The researchers will continue to study the rare specimen in even more depth. They will attempt to image its internal anatomy. Some of its body parts are still covered in rocks. Their find- ings can also be used in more studies of fossil embryos.
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