WASHINGTON — Editor's note: The attached video is about a fossil discovery made by cave divers in Feb. 2020.
In a historic first, researchers have discovered a fossil of a dinosaur preserved while sitting on a nest of its own eggs, with some of the eggs containing fossilized embryos.
The fossil in question is around 70 million years old and is a oviraptorosaur, a group of bird-like theropod dinosaurs, according to a January news release from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
The scientific discovery was detailed in the journal Science Bulletin.
Dr. Shundong Bi, one of the primary authors of the paper and a research associate at CMNH, noted that finding dinosaurs preserved on their nests is rare and so are fossil embryos.
"This is the first time a non-avian dinosaur has been found, sitting on a nest of eggs that preserve embryos, in a single spectacular specimen,” Dr. Bi explained in the museum's release.
The historic fossil was discovered in Ganzhou City in southern China’s Jiangxi Province.
According to the museum's news release, the fossil involves an incomplete skeleton of what's believed to be an adult oviraptorid dinosaur crouched in a brooding bird-like posture over at least 24 eggs. According to researchers, at least seven of the eggs have bones or partial skeletons of unhatched oviraptorid embryos.
Dr. Matt Lamanna, the lead dinosaur paleontologist at CMNH, was also part of the research team who made the discovery.
“This kind of discovery—in essence, fossilized behavior—is the rarest of the rare in dinosaurs,” explained Dr. Lamanna. "In the new specimen, the babies were almost ready to hatch, which tells us beyond a doubt that this oviraptorid had tended its nest for quite a long time. This dinosaur was a caring parent that ultimately gave its life while nurturing its young.”
