Well-Preserved Embryo Found Inside Fossilized Dinosaur Egg (wsj.com) 16
A rare look inside a fossilized dinosaur egg found in southern China has revealed an exquisitely preserved embryo -- and evidence suggesting that some of these prehistoric creatures had even more in common with modern birds than previously thought. From a report: Scientists said the embryo inside the egg, which was laid between 72 million to 66 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period, was that of a two-legged, feathered carnivore known as an oviraptorid. They said, in a paper about the discovery published Tuesday in the journal iScience, the embryo's curled body position -- with its back against the blunt end of the 7-inch-long egg and its head between its legs -- resembles that of bird embryos.
"This posture was previously not recognized in any dinosaur embryo," said Fion Waisum Ma, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Birmingham in England and a co-author of the paper. She said the posture suggests that the embryo had assumed a tucked position before hatching -- a behavior previously thought unique to birds. She called the newly described specimen "one of the best preserved dinosaur embryos ever found." In birds, tucking leaves the embryo with its right wing over its head and its beak pointing toward an air space at the egg's blunt end. That orientation helps direct the hatchling's head as it uses its beak to crack the eggshell and emerge.
"Failure to attain this posture would increase the chance of death, as the bird is less likely to break out of the egg successfully," Ms. Ma said. An inspection of the oviraptorid egg showed what appeared to be an air space between the embryo's spine and the egg's blunt end, according to the researchers. The specimen was among several fossils discovered about two decades ago in the Chinese city of Ganzhou but not recognized to be fossilized dinosaur eggs until 2015, when evaluated by an expert. A close examination of one of the eggs, which had fossilized after breaking, showed that it held the preserved oviraptorid embryo.
"This posture was previously not recognized in any dinosaur embryo," said Fion Waisum Ma, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Birmingham in England and a co-author of the paper. She said the posture suggests that the embryo had assumed a tucked position before hatching -- a behavior previously thought unique to birds. She called the newly described specimen "one of the best preserved dinosaur embryos ever found." In birds, tucking leaves the embryo with its right wing over its head and its beak pointing toward an air space at the egg's blunt end. That orientation helps direct the hatchling's head as it uses its beak to crack the eggshell and emerge.
"Failure to attain this posture would increase the chance of death, as the bird is less likely to break out of the egg successfully," Ms. Ma said. An inspection of the oviraptorid egg showed what appeared to be an air space between the embryo's spine and the egg's blunt end, according to the researchers. The specimen was among several fossils discovered about two decades ago in the Chinese city of Ganzhou but not recognized to be fossilized dinosaur eggs until 2015, when evaluated by an expert. A close examination of one of the eggs, which had fossilized after breaking, showed that it held the preserved oviraptorid embryo.
Erm... we going to clone it now? (Score:3)
Re: Erm... we going to clone it now? (Score:3)
I've got some and I'm headed there. Is it ok if its hidden in a shaving cream can?
China can build an unsafe park / zoo with cut rate (Score:2)
China can build an unsafe park / zoo with cut rate staff
Re: (Score:2)
Chicken DNA would probably work better, being half theropod anyway. Don't worry, though. Life will still be able to find a way [iamcountryside.com]
"Its head between its legs" (Score:2)
Mebbe it knew the asteroid was coming and chose to kiss its *ss goodbye?
Re: "Its head between its legs" (Score:3)
Gamma Ray Burst (from the Sun), I think you mean. We don't like to think of it as a possibility because what if it happens again? All humans not underground would be wiped out in the blink of an eye.
Re: "Its head between its legs" (Score:2)
Egg tooth (Score:3)
Are Birds Right Handed? (Score:2)
From the summary this was interesting:
In birds, tucking leaves the embryo with its right wing over its head and its beak pointing toward an air space at the egg's blunt end. That orientation helps direct the hatchling's head as it uses its beak to crack the eggshell and emerge.
Is there really a trait among birds to "tuck to the right"?
Re: (Score:3)
Apparently so [ufl.edu].
An embryo provided an optimum environment for development will position itself around 17â"18 days of incubation for hatch. The proper position is with the head under the right wing with the head directed toward the aircell in the large end of the egg. The results of this study demonstrate that malposition #6, which is beak above the right wing, constitutes almost 50% of the malpositions, followed by position #5, feet over head with a frequency of 20%.
Paywalled, here's the cell.com article (Score:4, Informative)
For those who can't see WSJ article content, it links to this iScience Cell Press copy of the open-access journal article An exquisitely preserved in-ovo theropod dinosaur embryo sheds light on avian-like prehatching postures [cell.com] [HTML], [PDF [cell.com]], [doi ref [doi.org]].
If you just want the image, here's the hi-res graphical abstract [elsevierhealth.com] [JPEG] showing posture similarity.
Re: (Score:2)
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Editors: wrong audience! (Score:2)
So now we have science news posted with links to a financial publication that is paywalled? The Wall Street Journal?
And this is not an odd case, it has to be a part of Slashdot's deal with WSJ, Bloomberg and the the New York Times.
As I said before [slashdot.org]: