A life reconstruction of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur dinosaur embryo is based on a new specimen. The credit was given to Lida Xing.
The embryo found inside a dinosaur egg sheds new light on the relationship between birds and dinosaurs.
The embryo was found in the rocks of southern China and is a toothless theropod dinosaur. The most complete dinosaur embryo ever found suggests that these dinosaurs developed bird-like postures close to hatching.
The posture of the embryo was unique, with the head lying below the body, the feet on either side and the back curled around the egg. This posture is similar to that of modern bird embryos.
The postures are related to the behavior of the central nervous system, which is critical for hatching success. Researchers believe that pre-hatching behavior may have originated among non-avian theropods after studying egg and embryo.
The research team from the University of Birmingham and the China University of Geosciences published their findings in iScience.
A photo of a oviraptorosaur embryo. It is one of the best-preserved dinosaur embryos. Ma et al, 2021.
The embryo is not disrupted by fossilization. The creature is 27 cm long from head to tail. The specimen is in a museum.
Dinosaur embryos are some of the most rare fossils, and most of them are incomplete with the dislocated bones. The discovery of Baby Yingliang helps us answer a lot of questions about dinosaur growth and reproduction and is preserved in a great condition.
It is interesting to see a dinosaur embryo and a chicken embryo pose in the same way inside the egg, which could be related to pre-hatching behaviors.
The baby was identified as an oviraptorosaur based on its deep, toothless skull. The Oviraptorosaurs are a group of feathered theropod dinosaurs that lived in Asia and North America. Their variable beak shapes and body sizes are likely to have allowed them to adopt a wide range of diet.
Birds bend their body and bring their head under their wing in a series of tuck postures before hatching. Failure to attain such postures can lead to death.
The life reconstruction of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur embryo is based on the new specimen, Baby Yingliang. Credit: Lida.
The team compared the embryo of Baby Yingliang with the embryo of other theropods, long-necked sauropod dinosaurs and birds to see if the behavior was unique to birds. Further discoveries of embryo fossils would be very useful to test this hypothesis.
The dinosaur embryo was acquired by the director of the Yingliang Group, Mr Liang Liu, as suspected egg fossils around 2000. The staff of the museum discovered the specimen when they sorted through the storage.
The fossils were identified as dinosaur egg fossils. The embryo was hidden inside the egg. This is how the baby was brought to light.
Professor Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh is part of the research team. This little dinosaur looks like a baby bird curled in its egg, which is evidence that many features of today's birds first evolved in their dinosaur ancestors.
An exquisitely preserved in-ovo theropod dinosaur embryo sheds light on avian-like prehatching postures. www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext... 2589-0042
The journal information is iScience.
The embryo was retrieved from the dinosaur egg on December 21st, 2021.
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