Written by / Jiang Hong (Yantai Museum)
This article is from the magazine Knowledge is Power
The "weird stuff" found in Antarctica
In 2011, paleontologists from Chile came to the fossil coast of Seymour Island to excavate, and they found many fossils, including a strange oval fossil 28 centimeters long and 20 centimeters wide. Paleontologists were at a loss for words about this strange fossil, and finally they put it in the warehouse of the National Museum of Natural History of Chile and called it a "strange thing."
A peculiar fossil with a crumpled surface and obvious ravines called "strange things"
In 2018, paleontologist Julia Clarke visited the National Museum of Natural History in Chile and saw this "strange thing" in the storeroom. Julia's first reaction was that the fossil was an egg. Paleontologists finally believed that this huge soft-shelled egg was laid by a dragon, and that the length of the egg-laying dragon should be more than 7 meters.
Cretaceous neptune dragon
The "soft egg" fossil proves that the dragon did not skip the step of laying eggs, but the eggs hatched immediately after leaving the mother, and the small dragon broke out of the shell, and the remaining eggshell sank to the bottom of the sea. In fact, from the perspective of the way dragons reproduce, they are changing to the way of egg birth. The discovery of Antarctic fossils of "soft eggs" has given us a new understanding of the dragon, a super sea monster that dominated the oceans at the end of the Cretaceous period, which was originally bred with eggs.
Map of the recovery of Antarctic "soft eggs" hatching
Dinosaurs' amazing way of laying eggs
The fossil of Oviraptorosaurus was found in a protoceratops' lair, its skull was completely broken, and the name of Oviraptorosaurus was to represent its habit of stealing eggs. The infamous oviraptorosaur was wronged for 70 years and was not rehabilitated until 1993, when paleontologists discovered that it had actually died in its lair because of the embryonic fossils of oviraptorosaurs found in dinosaur eggs.
Through research into fossil eggs hatched by its close relative, The Plesiosaur, scientists have found that Oviraptorosaurus not only did not steal eggs, but also hatched eggs like birds. They crouch on their nests and then use their forelimb feathers to block the poisonous sunlight with their arms outstretched, while their bodies warm their eggs at night. Oviraptorosaur production is also very distinctive, because they are double fallopian tubes, so two eggs will be laid at a time, if you look closely at the nest of oviraptorosaurs, you will find that the eggs are really arranged in a ring in pairs, and will be divided into two layers.
The eggs of the oviraptorosaurs are arranged in a ring in pairs
The most special way of laying eggs is the wounded tooth dragon. The shape of the toothed dragon's lair was not obvious, and the eggs were almost vertically inserted in the sand. This unique spawning method can effectively avoid the crushing of eggshells, and can ensure the normal development of embryos, which is really unique!
In the lair of the toothed dragon, the eggs were inserted vertically in the sand
Dinosaur egg fossils may be right at your feet
China is not only a dinosaur country, but also a dinosaur egg country, and tens of thousands of dinosaur egg fossils have been found in Heyuan City, Guangdong Province, Nanyang City, Henan Province, and Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province.
Fossilized dinosaur eggs that preserve dinosaur embryos
How do we identify dinosaur egg fossils? First of all, of course, look at the shape, in fact, most of the dinosaur egg fossils can not have a full and rounded appearance because of the external force squeezing; secondly, look at the cracks, the egg skin of the dinosaur egg will form a natural crack after being crushed, and there are unique lines on the egg skin; again, some dinosaur eggs can see the obvious differences in eggshell and internal structure because of the broken fracture.
This dinosaur egg fossil, although incomplete, preserves the basic shape and characteristic egg skin
In fact, even if you remember the key to distinguishing dinosaur egg fossils, you may still be confused when facing the real fossils, after all, it takes countless times of practice to cultivate a pair of fire eyes. It must be emphasized here: dinosaur egg fossils are protected by law and are strictly prohibited from being bought and sold, so if you do find dinosaur egg fossils, remember to turn them over to the state.