Fully preserved dinosaur embryo was discovered inside fossilized egg

A rare preserved dinosaur embryo, discovered within an egg snuggled into a position with legs pulled up and back curled similar to that of a modern bird soon before hatching depicted in a life-reconstruction graphic description, given the name Baby Yingliang by researchers of Yingliang Group in Beijing, China who discovered the egg.

The Baby Yingliang fossil is from the late Cretaceous period, and it is estimated to be between 72 and 66 million years old. It's the bones of an oviraptorosaur, a type of theropod dinosaur discovered in southern China. The embryo's state of preservation, as well as its location within the egg, makes this a spectacular discovery.

"Previously unidentified in dinosaurs, this posture is comparable to that of current bird embryos," the University of Birmingham said in a statement on Tuesday. A study of the fossil was led by researchers from that university and Beijing's China University of Geosciences, published in the journal iScience this week.
The dinosaur would be roughly 10.6 inches (27 centimeters) long, according to the experts. The egg measures 6.7 inches (17 cm) long, indicating how much the organism was bent over.

Fion Waisum Ma, a Palaeontologist at the University of Birmingham, who was a joint first author on the study said "It's amazing to observe this dinosaur embryo’s posing similarity to a chicken embryo in the same way within the egg, which could indicate similar pre-hatching habits” The researchers want to look at additional well-preserved dinosaur embryos to see if the tucking posture is something that evolved early in theropods. The posture aids in the successful hatching of modern birds.

Researchers will utilize advanced scanning techniques to obtain an image of the dinosaur's whole skeleton since part of its body is still covered by rock.