Scientists discovered perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo inside fossilized egg

A dinosaur embryo was discovered in perfect form concealed in a fossilized egg.

An egg sat in a storage room in Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum in Nan'an, China for over a decade, holding a secret which would later lead scientists to uncover an incredible link between dinosaurs and modern birds.

The egg was first discovered in Shahe Industrial Park in 2000 and later donated to the museum where it was placed into storage and so it wasn't until years later that anyone realised the egg contained a perfectly former dinosaur embryo.

When scientists began sorting their way through the museum's storage, they took a closer look at the egg and discovered it had an embryo inside - measuring 27cm (11 inches) long - identified as belonging to the oviraptorosaurs dinosaur.

The oviraptorosaurs are a group of dinosaur which look quite like ostriches, with feathers instead of scales. The dinosaur group are from the Cretaceous Period and upon analysis, the egg was estimated to date back as far as 72 million years.

At the time, the embryo was dubbed 'Baby Yingliang' and has gone down in history as one of the most complete dinosaur embryos ever found.

And scientists were particularly interested in the posture of the dinosaur embryo in particular.

The embryo went on to be named as Baby Yingliang. (Lida Xing)

In a 2021 study conducted by the University of Birmingham and China University of Geosciences (Beijing), the embryo was described as having a bird-like posture as its head was lying below the body, with the feet on either side and the back curled along the blunt end of the egg.

This is known as 'tucking' - something which is associated with modern day birds.

In the 2021 study, it was said that such posture was 'previously unrecognized in a non-avian dinosaur, but reminiscent of a late-stage modern bird embryo'.

"This little prenatal dinosaur looks just like a baby bird curled in its egg, which is yet more evidence that many features characteristic of today’s birds first evolved in their dinosaur ancestors," said Professor Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh, who was part of the research team.

Brusatte went on describe Baby Yingliang as 'one of the most beautiful fossils I have ever seen'.

The fossil was first discovered in 2000. (Wang Dongming/China News Service via Getty Images)

Fion Waisum Ma, joint first author and PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham, added at the time: "We are very excited about the discovery of 'Baby Yingliang' - it is preserved in a great condition and helps us answer a lot of questions about dinosaur growth and reproduction with it.

“It is interesting to see this dinosaur embryo and a chicken embryo pose in a similar way inside the egg, which possibly indicates similar pre-hatching behaviours.”

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