Scientists reveal the contents of China’s smallest dinosaur egg fossil

Scientists in China found six fossilized eggs that were disturbed. From this discovery, it was discovered that dinosaurs roamed China at the end of the Cretaceous period.

Reporting from an independent UK, Thursday (24/10/2024), six fossilized eggs were found in Ganzhou province, China in 2021. After three years of research, scientists got a complete picture of the tiny eggshells and the damaged creatures inside .

The findings, published in the journal Historical Biology, confirm that the eggs were dinosaurs that roamed the area around 80 million years ago.

“We report an egg assemblage with six complete small eggs from the Upper Cretaceous Tangbian Formation in Ganzhou City,” the study said.

The smallest eggs are only about 29 mm long. The smallest previously known dinosaur egg measured about 45 mm x 40 mm x 34 mm.

The thickness, pores and other features of the eggshell from 2021 are unlike those known from this type of dinosaur.

This shows that the eggs came from a new species of four-legged dinosaur group called theropods.

“Egg morphology and eggshell microstructure support that the egg is the smallest non-avian theropod egg known to date,” the new study said.

The eggs are now classified in a new category called Analysis of ganzhouensisnamed after the city in China where the eggs were found.

“This discovery increases the diversity of dinosaur eggs in the Late Cretaceous and is important for our understanding of theropod evolution in the Late Cretaceous,” the study notes.

The researchers plan to continue studying the area where the fossil egg was found to understand the nature of the dinosaur that laid it and how this dinosaur built its nest.

(bl/fem)