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Discovered in Antarctica, the egg, the largest of the age of the dinosaurs

Santiago de Chile, Chile.

A group of chilean researchers discovered in the Antarctica the egg, the largest of the age of the dinosaurs, of almost 30 inches and 6.5 pounds, which would correspond to a marine reptile that lived more than 66 million years ago.

The finding also makes history by being the second egg of a larger size of the record.

“With this data we can understand a little more about the form of the reproduction of the large marine reptiles of the mesozoic era or the dinosaurs“held, David Rubilar, paleontologist at the National museum of History, Natural and one of the scientists who found the remains organic.

Research

The fossil, of a appearance rocky oval, like a big ball deflated, was found during an expedition in 2011 by researchers from the University of Chile and the National Museum of Natural History to the Seymour islandto the northeast of the Antarctic peninsula.

After more than eight years of investigation along with american experts from the University of Texas at Austin, this Wednesday in the prestigious journal Nature published the conclusion.

The academic of the Faculty of Science of the University of Chile Alexander Vargas explained that the egg had a soft shell “very thin,” and the mother, a marine reptile that was probably a mosasaur, measured “between 7 and 17 meters.”

“Thanks to this discovery we now know that there are soft-shelled eggs of this size. The mass limit of these is 700 grams, then the ‘Antarcticoolithus bradyi’ comes to break the scheme with its 6,5 kg, which is comparable to the mass of the great egg of the “ave elephant” of Madagascar and the largest eggs of non-avian dinosaurs,” said paleontologist David Rubilar.

The discovery marks a turning point both for his enormous size as for its rarity, as it is “unreleased“to preserve an egg with soft shell, which according to the expert, “they tend to decompose with ease and not be preserved as fossils”.

A unique place

The exploration that made possible the discovery in 2011 was framed in the larger campaign paleontológica de Chile in the continent whiteas part of the annual expedition of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH).

The geologists focused mostly on Seymour Island, folded “wonderful and abundant fossil” and one of the few sites where you can distinguish the end of the era of the dinosaurs to the beginning of the age of mammals, makes 66 million years ago.

Precisely at that time inhabited the area the mesosaurios, which are directly related to species such as the Komodo dragon and snakes.

“Perhaps gives us a clue (recent discovery), in what kind of environments we could find other eggs of this type. It also opens a discussion on how and where you were born these animals,” concluded Rubilar.

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