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The photo shows a fossil of duck-billed dinosaur embryo.
Two fossils containing the most complete duck-billed dinosaur embryo ever recorded by scientists They have only been discovered in the Ganzhou Basin, in eastern China.
The fossils, dating from 66 to 72 million years ago, are now preserved 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 percent of the egg, according to the research, published today. 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 hadrosaur, a class of large herbivorous dinosaurs that lived at the end of the dinosaur age and were characterized by their flat, duck-like beaks.
While this is not the first time such an embryo type has been found, the Ying Baby is by far the best preserved ever discovered. The difference between 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 exciting new pieces of information. It’s important that this discovery has added to our understanding of the 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, believed to be the best dinosaur embryo specimen found to date, is now housed in the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum.