Have you ever seen a 29mm dinosaur egg? Dinosaur egg fossil family adds new member "Ganzhou mini egg"
The reporter learned from the Jiangxi Provincial Geological Survey and Exploration Institute on October 17 that the egg fossil found in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province with a length of only 29 mm was confirmed by the research team as a new genus and species of the dinosaur egg oval egg family, and was named "Ganzhou Mini Egg". The research results were recently published online in the international professional academic journal Historical Biology.
The picture shows the newly discovered new genus and species of dinosaur egg fossils - Ganzhou mini eggs. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
In 2021, Lou Fasheng, chief engineer of Jiangxi Provincial Geological Survey and Exploration Institute, led a research team composed of Jiangxi Provincial Geological Survey and Exploration Institute and Jiangxi Geological Museum to find and collect a well-preserved egg nest at a construction site in Meilin Town, Ganxian District, Ganzhou City, which has 6 almost complete egg fossils arranged irregularly, and the stratigraphic age is the Late Cretaceous period more than 80 million years ago. Subsequently, the research team collaborated with the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and after three years of research, it was confirmed that it was a dinosaur egg fossil.
How can these fossilized eggs be identified as dinosaur eggs? Lou Fasheng said that the research team used scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction and other methods to analyze the microstructure of the eggshell, and classified the specimen into the oval egg family of dinosaur eggs according to its macroscopic shape, ornamentation type and basic structure of shell units. Due to the obvious differences between the newly discovered egg fossils in terms of size, eggshell thickness, stomatal system and ultrastructure, new genera and species were established.
Lou Fasheng said the research team also found that this is the smallest intact dinosaur egg fossil known in the world. Previously, among the dinosaur egg fossils found in the published academic achievements, the smallest was the Jinguo micro-oval egg produced in Zhejiang, which was about 45.5mm×40.4mm×34.4mm; The maximum length of the newly discovered Ganzhou mini egg is only 29 mm, setting a new record for the smallest dinosaur egg fossil.
On the left is a newly discovered fossilized dinosaur egg, similar in size to a quail egg. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
"After phylogenetic analysis of known fossilized eggs, we believe that these dinosaur eggs came from a small theropod dinosaur." Han Fenglu, an associate professor in the field of vertebrate paleontology at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), said that the newly discovered fossil of the world's smallest complete dinosaur egg has increased the diversity of Late Cretaceous dinosaur eggs, which is of great significance for understanding the evolution and reproduction mode of Late Cretaceous theropod dinosaurs.
In the next step, the research team will use micro-CT scanning to restore the burial state of the fossilized eggs as a whole, study the formation process, and further determine which type of dinosaur laid eggs and how these dinosaurs reproduced.
Source: Xinhua News Agency