Exquisitely preserved dinosaur embryo reveals strange posture

A team of researchers has managed to describe an embryo between 72 and 66 million years old “exquisitely preserved” inside a fossilized dinosaur egg, which sheds new light on the relationship between modern bird behavior and these extinct animals.

The embryo, nicknamed “Bebé Yingliang“, was discovered in Ganzhou, in southern China, and belongs to a toothless theropod dinosaur or ovirraptorosaurus; the fossil suggests that these dinosaurs developed postures similar to those of birds close to hatching.

Similar to modern birds

Scientists discovered that the posture of Baby Yingliang, one of the most complete diporenosaur embryos ever found, is unique: his head is below the body, with the feet on either side and the back curled along the blunt end of the egg.

This posture, hitherto unknown in dinosaurs, is similar to modern bird embryos, says a statement from the University of Birmingham (UK). In birds these postures are related to a behavior controlled by the central nervous system and fundamental for the success of the hatching.

After studying the egg and the embryo, the researchers believe that this pre-hatching behavior, which until now was considered exclusive to birds, may have originated among non-avian theropods.

The embryo is articulated without great alterations due to fossilization: with an estimated length of 27 centimeters from head to tail, the creature is inside a 17 centimeter egg.

‘Baby Yingliang

Led by experts from the University of Birmingham and the Chinese University of Geosciences (Beijing), the team, also made up of scientists from Canada, has published the details in the journal iScience. According to the magazine, the issue was acquired in 2000 by Liang Liu, a director of a company called Yingliang Group, who suspected it might contain egg fossils.

But it ended up in storage, largely forgotten until about ten years later, when, during the construction of the Yingliang Stone Museum of Natural History, the staff sorted the boxes and unearthed the fossils; now is where you are.

Related news

“We are very excited about the discovery de Bebé Yingliang, since it has been preserved in a great state and we helps answer many questions on the growth and reproduction of dinosaurs “, emphasizes Fion Waisum Ma.

“It is interesting to see that this dinosaur embryo and a chicken embryo pose similarly inside the egg, possibly indicating similar behaviors before hatching. “

Reference-www.elperiodico.com

Leave a Comment