Amazingly preserved fossil egg shows dinosaur, bird links: Scientists

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Amazingly preserved fossil egg shows dinosaur, bird links: Scientists

Author of the article:
Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:
Dec 22, 2021 • 17 hours ago • 1 minute read •
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Drawing by Julius Csotonyi shows a life reconstruction of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur embryo based on the new specimen "Baby Yingliang," in this handout image obtained by Reuters on Dec. 22, 2021.
Drawing by Julius Csotonyi shows a life reconstruction of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur embryo based on the new specimen "Baby Yingliang," in this handout image obtained by Reuters on Dec. 22, 2021. Photo by Lida Xing /Handout via REUTERS
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Scientists say an amazingly well-preserved fossil egg adds more evidence to the close links between dinosaurs and modern birds.
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Darla Zelenitsky from the University of Calgary has just published a paper on the egg, originally discovered in China about 20 years ago.

She says the embryo of the therapod dinosaur is curled up inside the egg just like a chicken, with its back against the broad end of the egg.

Zelenitsky says that means the posture predates the appearance of birds and it’s one more birdlike characteristic developed by dinosaurs.

Others include feathers and how eggs are shaped and built.
View of the oviraptorosaur embryo “Baby Yingliang.”
View of the oviraptorosaur embryo “Baby Yingliang.” Photo by Lida Xing /Handout via REUTERS

Even sitting on nests to hatch eggs was done first by dinosaurs.

Zelenitsky says that in 25 years of studying dinosaur eggs she’s never seen one so preserved.

The first time she saw it, she says, she could have sworn it winked at her.
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