A perfectly preserved dinosaur egg highlights link to modern birds
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dec. 21, 2021, 4:02 PM UTC By Tom Metcalfe
A 66-million-year-old fossil of a complete baby dinosaur in its egg, apparently just a few days before it would have hatched, shows the remarkable similarities between theropod dinosaurs and the birds they would evolve into, according to a study published Tuesday.
The fossilized bones of the embryo, named "Baby Yingliang" after the museum in southern China where it was discovered, can be seen curled up inside its 6-inch elongated eggshell and looking almost exactly like a modern bird at that stage, although it has tiny arms and claws rather than wings.
Fion Waisum Ma, a paleontologist at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, said the head is particularly striking in its similarity to the head of a newly hatched bird — a resemblance heightened by a beak that was a feature of the dinosaur species, called oviraptorosaur. Ma is one of the lead authors of the fossil study published in the journal iScience. Scientists from China, Canada and elsewhere in the U.K. were also involved.
Oviraptorosaurs, a type of theropod dinosaur with hollow bones and three-toed limbs, were very close to the dinosaur ancestry that evolved into modern birds. As well as beaks, they had feathers on their arms. They couldn't fly, but there is evidence that they spread the feathers out above their nests to keep the eggs beneath them warm, said John Nudds, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in the U.K, who wasn't involved in the study.
Embryonic dinosaur fossils are extremely rare — paleontologists have found them at only about half a dozen sites. And this is the first time any have shown signs of a distinctive posture known as "tucking" — with the head under the right arm — although some other dinosaur embryos have shown distinct "egg teeth" that they may have used to break out of their shells, Nudds said.
A life reconstruction of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur dinosaur embryo based on the new specimen Baby Yingliang.Courtesy Lida Xing
Ma said that until now the tucking posture had been seen only in birds.
"Some embryos are quite well preserved, but they don't show this posture," she said. "And some are very fragmentary, so it is difficult to see their posture clearly."
Baby birds adopt the posture, with their heads "tucked" under their right wings, in the egg just a few days before they hatch; embryos that fail to get it right are seldom able to hatch properly.
Ma said tucking seems to help baby birds make their first cracks in the eggshells by restricting the movement of their heads.
"It's easier to stabilize the beak and to direct it to the same place when they try to break the eggshell," she said.
The researchers suggest that the tucking posture evolved because oviraptorosaurs had hard shells, like those of birds, instead of soft shells, like those of turtles — an early form of shell that was still common about 70 million years ago among dinosaurs like the sheep-size protoceratops.
Scientists think hard eggshells gave better protection from the environment than soft shells, so oviraptorosaurs and related dinosaur species may have evolved the tucking posture to break through their harder eggshells, Ma said.
Baby Yingliang was in a cache of fossils that were delivered in 2000 to the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in the Chinese city of Nan'an, possibly after they had been found at a construction site in the nearby city of Ganzhou.
It wasn't until 2015 that one of the museum staff examined the fossil egg and noticed that what appeared to be bones could be seen in a fracture.
The fossilized egg has now been scientifically analyzed and the fossil split so the complete skeleton of the embryo can be seen curled up in its shell.
The study suggests that the fossil is 66 million to 72 million years old. The baby dinosaur would have been about 10 inches from beak to tail when it was hatched, and it might have grown to more than 6 feet long as an adult.
An animated reconstruction of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur dinosaur embryo based on the new specimen Baby Yingliang.Lida Xing (please go to article to see this image)
Modern chicken eggs take about 21 days to hatch. They are much smaller than Baby Yingliang, and scientists don't know how long it had been developing in its egg before it was fossilized. It seemed to have been about to hatch within a few days, Ma said.
Many dinosaur experts have hailed the fossil as one of the best-preserved embryos they have ever seen. But some aren't certain that what the researchers have interpreted as a tucking posture in the embryo is actually that.
"This is an interesting discovery, but I am skeptical about the 'tucking' behavior as it is primarily based on a single specimen," said Shundong Bi of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. "I think more evidence is needed."
Bi, who wasn't involved in the latest research, studied the fossilized remains of a different oviraptorosaur crouching above a clutch of 24 eggs, some of which contained embryos.
The interpretation of the tucking posture depended on the dinosaur eggs' containing pockets of air, like the eggs of birds. But that couldn't be seen in this fossil, and it hadn't been seen in other dinosaur eggs, Bi said in an email.
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Evening....what an absolutely stunning find...
How would you like it, boiled, scrambled or sunny side up?
Errr dont think there's a fry pan big enough...
How about poached?
Not so sure, don't poachers get shot? But you've heard of eggs Benedict? How about eggs Jurassic?
Amazing find. I would love to see one of the birds from that time period flying today.
M
If you did, it might have some frog DNA in it...
Ever watch a blue heron flying above? I think they look like what a pterodactyl might have looked like
I rarely look up when a bird is flying overhead for obvious reasons.
Until it coiled off a rope that crashed through your windshield.
Try explaining that one to a insurance adjuster.😁
Would be interesting
Interesting article:
Are Pterodactyls Dinosaurs? Learn More About These Prehistoric Predators
A huge aggressive flying predator is not my idea of something I would love to see above me.
Those things are why god invented shotguns.
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The barn swallows around here try to intimidate me and keep me in my place.
Amazing how much dinosaurs have "evolved" since I was a kid. When I was a kid they were giant lizards. Scientists didn't say anything about how they may have been the precursors to birds. Believe it or not the first reference I heard about dinosaurs and birds was in Jurassic Park.
And the last few years dinosaurs have developed feathers. Science is dynamic...ever changing based on new evidence
They may have been the precursors to birds.
Yep:
Actually, this is old evidence. Recall books I read as a child linking the evolution of dinos to birds.
A lot of dinosaurs looked like chickens. Here is Jianianhualong tengi.
Giant birds with really big claws, everywhere!
I use to think birds were single minded until I had some crows.
Years ago I found two baby crows on the ground, not far from my house. I took them home and fed them and watched them. They would perch on my arm or hand. I had to leave town for a couple of days and they died.
They were outside and I had someone to look after them and feed them yet they said the birds would have nothing to do with them.
After that, for almost two years a flock of crows followed me around. They would land and almost talk. They never harmed me in any way or were in any way menacing. It is almost like they were observing.
They did dive bomb people that came near me several times.
Crows are uber smart. They can talk, like parrots, recognize people and make strong attachments to people. They even can make tools and figure out problems that have multi-steps to solve.
If you are interested, there are a few documentaries I know on them and I can send you the links.
A murder I should have said...Haha
You can send me the links though. I always thought they were beautiful.
I never got the bad reputation they seem to get.
Then again, I was never on their bad side.
Thankfully Fred and Barney were able to tame and train them for household functions.
I believe that I saw it on Nat. Geo..
Have had personal contact with several parrots who were semi friendly.
A cockatoo I used to know would run across the floor between dogs and cats (who wisely ignored him) whenever I came over. He would fly/jump into my lap and land upside down and spread his wings just to get a belly rub.
Fascinating news. Add this to the 8 foot millipede fossil in England and it's a good week for paleontology!
the stuff of nightmares....
That was a funny comment!
I hate scorpions, centipedes, and millipedes. I had a nightmare about centipedes because my 10th grade biology teacher had a jar of giant ones on the table in the front of the room...and I sat right in front of the creepy crawlies
Supposedly caught off the beach in Miami Fl
date unknown, source undocumented
yikes
What the...What....WHAT THE FRACK IS THAT????????????
Sea Scorpion, lol.
You know I'm having a nightmare tonite, right?
I hate these things..
So do I...so quit it!
ROFL!
We had 8 inch long ones in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii when I was stationed there and they were bad enough!
Looks like it might be tasty with butter.
Mmmmmm. My kingdom for a half gallon of garlic butter.
Looks like i'll need a bigger shoe, my size 12 is just going to piss it off.
I missed this in the seed! That's my alma mater
When I first heard that I thought it was made up.
Indiana university of Pennsylvania?
Like Miami University of Ohio?
LOL! A lot of people do. The name of the town is called Indiana. It was founded by George Clymer a signer of the DOI. He named it for the Indians living there.
When I went to tech school after basic we all had to introduce ourselves and say something about ourselves. I said I was a graduate of Indiana University of PA and everyone got a puzzled look on their face except for my fellow troops from PA. Somebody asked if Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) had a satellite school in PA.
Ok, I was looking at the egg as it is always on the front page and for some reason it made me think of Grump.
For someone's birthday he always sang...Hippo bird eggs to ewe...
Funny timing. We have been discussing the irrational 6,000 year old Earth belief in two articles. This belief is irrational because of the multi-discipline, cross-validated, abundantly evidenced age of the Earth in modern knowledge. The Earth being billions of years old is as well-founded as the Earth being an oblate spheroid (not flat).
And here we go with yet another amazing discovery and (possibly, it would seem) 100 million Americans (and at least one active NT member) will hold that this fossil can be no older than 6,000 years.
I found this to be interesting:
Given that Earth formerly featured a much higher level of oxygen in its air, pretty much everything was gigantic during that geologic time period (megaflora and megafauna are the technical terms for “big ass flowers and animals”)
One of the things that I noticed about prehistoric plants and animals was that so many were so...YUGE.
Now I know why!
My favorite prehistoric flyer.
An Ichthyosaur With a Grand Piano-Size Head and a Big Appetite - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
The original article I saw had a one of the women researchers lying next to the full skull of this gigantic fossil
that someone discovere by noticing the three feet of interlocking teeth...that they were standing on...
Huge reptile with 56ft body once roamed the seas of what is now Nevada (msn.com)
Great Basin Brewing :: Ichthyosaur "ICKY" IPA® (greatbasinbrewingco.com)
Enjoy
and a Mery Xmas to all
Remember X is Greek for CRI = Christ
interesting relationships in the Greek language of old
Christian Symbols: An Illustrated Glossary (learnreligions.com)