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Oviraptorid Embryo

Fossils of dinosaur eggs rarely have bones inside them. In 1993, however, Museum scientists found an egg in the Gobi Desert that contained the remains of a tiny dinosaur embryo from 80 million years ago. Like most scientific discoveries, this one raises as many questions as it answers.

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illustration of embryo curled up inside egg shape

An "Eggs-traordinary" Discovery
In 1993, Mark Norell discovered a fossilized egg containing a curled-up oviraptorid embryo. These tiny bones helped explain a discovery from over 70 years ago. In the 1920s, Roy Chapman Andrews and his team had found a fossil of an adult Oviraptor on a nest of eggs. Andrews believed that the eggs belonged to Protoceratops, a common Cretaceous Gobi dinosaur. His theory was that the Oviraptor was raiding a nest of Protoceratops eggs. Because Dr. Norell's 1993 egg matched the eggs found in the 1920s, scientists now think that the Oviraptor found by Dr. Andrews was actually protecting its own nest of eggs.

Stumper

The oviraptorid embryo was first noticed in the egg when:

it was cracked open with a hammer

it was found in the desert

it was CAT-scanned for its contents

Correct!

The egg was found on the desert surface already broken-open and exposing the bones within.

Fact or Fiction

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Oviraptor was a bizarre-looking, toothless dinosaur.

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