Tribune Web Office
Chandigarh, December 22
Chinese scientists have announced that they have found a perfectly preserved fossilized dinosaur embryo preparing to hatch from an egg.
A BBC report said the egg was found in Ganzhou, in southern China’s Jiangxi province. Researchers estimate the fossil to be at least 66 million years old, according to the BCC report.
The embryo is believed to be that of a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur, and was named Baby Yingliang, the BBC said in its report.
The report quotes a researcher, Dr Fion Waisum Ma, as saying it is the “best dinosaur embryo ever found in history.” Oviraptorosaurs, which means “egg-stealing lizards”, belonged to the Cretaceous period, that is, between 100 million and 66 million years ago. Typically short, parrot-like beaked skulls, with or without bony ridges at the top of their heads, these feathered Maniraptoran dinosaurs lived in what is now Asia and North America.
The fossil shows the embryo in a curled position known as “folding” – a behavior seen in birds shortly before they hatch, according to the BBC report.
The discovery gave researchers a better understanding of the connection between dinosaurs and modern birds, according to the BBC report.
“This indicates that such behavior in modern birds first evolved and originated in their dinosaur ancestors,” Dr Ma told AFP news agency as quoted by the BBC.
Paleontologist Professor Steve Brusatte, who was also on the research team, tweeted that it was “one of the most amazing dinosaur fossils” he had ever seen.
“Oh no… not Jurassic Park”
News of this discovery gave way to hilarious responses. Users took to social media to joke about a possible world like the “Jurassic Park” movie franchise. The first installment in a trilogy based on the 1990 Michael Crichton novel, the film is set on Isla Nublar, a fictional island off the Pacific coast of Central America, near Costa Rica, where a wealthy man d business and a team of geneticists have created a wildlife park of extinct dinosaurs.
“The pandemic and now the dinosaurs are going to come back… that’s right (sic),” a tweet said.
” I do not like it. After the last 2 years all we need is a real Jurassic Park moment, ”said another.
Remember Dr. Ian Malcolm pic.twitter.com/g8hTPrpdlM
– La chica del Pórtico (@Lizzie_AR) December 21, 2021
@LucGlazier do not like it. After the last 2 years, all we need is a real Jurassic Park moment 😂😂😂
– shaun (@shaun_thompson) 22 December 2021
We know how it ends pic.twitter.com/O0hD6fBF6l
– christophe Ashton (@ chris_ashton1) December 21, 2021
OMG yes! It’s happening! pic.twitter.com/ZdeeOeYN6X
– JonnyK (@ J5KERN) December 21, 2021
