Two dinosaur embryos from the Cretaceous period have been discovered in Jiangxi Province, Eastern China.
The most complete duck-billed dinosaur embryo found in China. (Photo: Global Times)
A thesis co-published by the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum, China University of Geosciences, and scholars from Taiwan and Canada addresses a series of questions regarding the evolution and reproduction of dinosaurs. The specimens are displayed at the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum in Fujian Province, Eastern China, and are named “Ying Baby.”
Ying Baby, originating from the late Cretaceous strata in Jiangxi, is dated to approximately 72 to 66 million years ago. It is housed in an oval-shaped egg with a diameter of about 9 cm and a length of approximately 17 cm. Scientists estimate that the dinosaur would have measured around 27 cm long (including the tail) upon hatching. They believe that if it had survived to adulthood, Baby Yingliang would have grown to between 2 to 3 meters in length.
Based on the unique shape of the skull, vertebrae, and limb bones of the embryo, scientists infer that it belongs to the duck-billed dinosaur, also known as hadrosaurids, a group of large herbivorous dinosaurs that lived during the late dinosaur era.
Baby Ying is a duck-billed dinosaur. (Photo: Internet)
A team of Chinese and Canadian scientists has closely studied Baby Ying’s posture, comparing it with previously discovered dinosaur embryos and concluding that, before hatching, dinosaurs also shift their positions, similar to how birds twist and turn before breaking out of their eggs. While this is not the first instance of such an embryo being found, Ying Baby remains the best-preserved specimen to date.
Since 1859, a significant number of dinosaur egg fossils have been discovered across various Mesozoic strata worldwide, particularly in China, especially fossils from the late Cretaceous period. Very few of the previously discovered eggs still contain fossilized embryos, making Ying Baby one of the rarest fossils known to date.
