In Jiangxi province in southeast China, scientists have discovered the world's smallest fossilized dinosaur egg, a find that will provide insight into the evolution of long-extinct creatures, Keji Daily reported on Thursday. "The discovered dinosaur egg fossils... are small, their shells are thin and worm-like nodules, these features differ from other already known fossils.
Previously, the size of the smallest dinosaur egg discovered in China... was about 45.5 x 40.4 x 34.4 mm. The length of the discovered egg is 29 mm,” said Lu Fasheng, head of the Jiangxi Provincial Geological Survey Institute. A team of researchers led by him discovered a well-preserved clutch of six fossilized eggs in 2021 in Ganzhou.
Three years later, the discovery was officially confirmed. The results of the work were published in the journal Historical Biology. The find is dated back to the Late Cretaceous period, dating back to more than 80 million years ago. “We believe that these eggs came from a small theropod dinosaur,” said Han Fenglu, an associate professor at China University of Geological Sciences. Scientists say the discovery has great implications for understanding evolution and reproductive methods of Late Cretaceous theropods.
