Washington: Scientists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dinosaur embryos that were beautifully maintained from at least 66 million years ago who were intersecting to hatch from their eggs like chicken.
Fossils are found in Ganzhou, South China and belong to the Theropoda dinosaurs who are incoming, or oviraptorosa, which researchers are nicknamed “Yingliang Babies.” “This is one of the best dinosaur embryos ever found in history,” University of Birmingham Researcher Fion Waisum MA, who jointly wrote papers in the journal Iscience, told AFP.
MA and colleagues found Yingliang’s baby’s head lying under his body, with legs on both sides and back curved postures that were previously invisible in dinosaurs, but similar to modern birds.
In birds, behavior is controlled by the central nervous system and is called “tucking.” Chicks intend to hatch their heads under their right wing to stabilize the head as they solve the skin with their beak.
The embryo that failed to slip has a higher chance of death than a failed hatcher.
“It shows that such behavior in modern birds first evolved and came from their dinosaur ancestors,” Ma said.
The alternative to tucking may have become something closer to what is seen in a modern crocodile, the opposite considers a posture to sit with the head to bend to hatch.
– Forgotten in storage – Oviraptorosaurs, which means “egg thieves lizards,” are hairy dinosaurs who live in the current place in Asia and North America during the Cretaceous period.
They have a half-life form and variable diet, and sized range from modern turkeys at the lower end to a large gigantoraptor, which is eight meters long (26 feet).
Yingliang babies measuring around 27 centimeters (10.6 inches) from head to tail, and located in 17 centimeter long eggs at the Yingliang natural history museum.
Researchers believed the creature was between 72 and 66 million years old, and may be preserved by a landslide that suddenly buryed eggs, protected it from scavengers for thousands of years.
It will grow two to three meters if it lives to become an adult, and is likely to be fed in plants.
Specimens are one of the few fossils forgotten in storage for decades.
The research team that they suspected may contain unborn dinosaurs, and remove parts of Yingliang’s baby eggs to uncover the embryo hidden inside.
“Dinosaur embryos in the egg is one of the most beautiful fossils I have ever seen,” said Professor Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh, part of the research team, in a statement.
“These small prenatal dinosaurs look like baby birds looped in their eggs, which are more evidence that many features of the characteristics of birds are first evolved in their dinosaur ancestors.” The team hopes to study Baby Yingliang in more detail using advanced scanning techniques to imagine the full framework, including his skull, because some of the body is still covered by stones.