Two fossils containing the embryo of dinosaur The most complete duckbills ever scientifically recorded have been discovered in the Ganzhou Basin in eastern China.
The fossils, dating from 66 to 72 million years ago, are now kept at the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum in southeast China’s Fujian province. The museum has named the specimens “Ying Baby,” reports the People’s Daily.
The egg of the specimens is an ellipsoid with a diameter of about 9 centimeters and a total volume of about 660 milliliters. The embryo fills about 40% of the egg, according to the research, which was published in the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution.
Judging from the unique shape of the embryo’s skull, vertebrae, and limb bones, scientists have inferred that it belonged to a duck-billed dinosaur, or hadrosaurids, a class of large, herbivorous dinosaurs that lived at the end of the era of the dinosaurs and was characterized by its flat, duck-like beaks.
While this is not the first time such an embryo has been found, the Ying Baby is by far the best preserved ever discovered.
The small size of both the egg and the embryo implies that duck-billed dinosaurs had small eggs and late body development as a primary feature, which is one of the most important new pieces of information this discovery has added to our understanding of the dinosaur. development of dinosaur species.
In December 2021, a research team made up of scientists from China, the UK and Canada also discovered a perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo fossil, which is believed to be the best dinosaur embryo specimen found to date and is now It is housed in the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum.
Source: Elcomercio
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