This fossil of oviraptorosaur, discovered in China, was about hatching like a bird, a position that had never been observed in dinosaurs.
Le Monde
Excitement among scientists is at its height. A magnificently preserved dinosaur embryo, dating from at least 66 million years ago, was discovered in Ganzhou, China. This fossil of Oviraptorosaur, named “Baby Yingliang” by the researchers, was preparing to get out of his egg, they explained at the announcement of the discovery, Tuesday, December 21.
“This is one of the best dinosaur embryos never found,” said France-Press (AFP), Fion Waisum Ma, from the University of Birmingham and Co -auture of the Study, Posted in ISCIENCE . “One of the most beautiful fossils I have ever seen,” confirms Professor Steve Brusatte, from the University of Edinburgh and member of the research team.
The specimen “looks exactly like a bird wrapped in his egg,” he says. Baby Yingliang was found his back curved, his feet on each side of his head, with this one returned to his belly. A position that had never been observed in dinosaurs, but which is well known in birds. When the chicks prepare to hatch, they stabilize their head under a wing, while piercing their shell with their beak. The embryos can not get in this position have greater chances of dying of a failed hatch.
RARE WELL-PRESERved Dinosaur Embryo Has a Bird-like Pre-Hatching Posture, Raising The Possibility That This Behavio … https://t.co/ewpb7jczps //p>- cellpressnews (@cell press)
preserved thanks to a slide of mud
This discovery “brings more evidence than the many characteristics of the birds today come from their dinosaur ancestors,” says Brusatte. An alternative could have been able to look like the crocodiles, which adopt them a sitting posture, with their head only leaning on their belly.
Oviraptorosaurs, whose name means “Egg Lezard”, were feathered dinosaurs living in Asia and North America during the era of the Superior Cretaceous. They could have different forms of beaks and diets, and their size went from that of monkeys to that of huge gigantoraaptors, measuring eight meters long.
Baby Yingliang measure, 27 centimeters of the tail head and rests in an egg of 17 centimeters long at the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum. According to scientists, it is between 72 and 66 million years old, and has probably been so well preserved thanks to a sliding slide having buried it and protected from scavengers. He would have grown up until two or three meters long if he had reached adulthood, and would have been nourished by plants.
This specimen was part of a group of several egg fossils, left aside and forgotten for years. The researchers suspected that they can contain dinosaurs and scraped part of the shell to discover Baby Yingliang. The researchers hope to be able to study the embryo with more precision using imaging techniques, in order to bring up all its skeleton.