66-million-year-old dinosaur embryo found in China

A 66-million-year-old dinosaur embryo was discovered in Ganzhou in southern China.

Highlights

• The embryo is believed to be a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur,
• It has been named Baby Yingliang.
• The discovery of embryo has also provided researchers a greater understanding of the link between dinosaurs and modern birds.
• The fossil provides that, embryo was in a curled position called as “tucking”. This behaviour is seen among birds, shortly before they hatch. It also indicates that tucking behaviour in modern birds has been evolved and originated from their dinosaur ancestors.

About Oviraptorosaurs

Oviraptorosaurs means “egg thief lizards”. They were feathered dinosaurs, which lived-in present-day Asia and North America during Late Cretaceous period, some 100 million to 66 million years ago. They are distinct for their short, beaked, parrot-like skulls.

About Baby Yingliang

Baby Yingliang measures 27cm long from head to tail. It is resting inside a 6.7-inch-long egg at Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in China. This egg was first uncovered in 2000 and put into storage for 10 years.

About Theropoda Clade

Members of Theropoda clade are known as theropods. Teropoda is a dinosaur clade, which is characterized by hollow bones as well as three-toed limbs. Theropods are usually classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally carnivorous. However, a number of theropod groups evolved to become omnivores, herbivores, piscivores, and insectivores. They first appeared during Carnian age in late Triassic period, around 231.4 million years ago. They included all the large terrestrial carnivores, from Early Jurassic to Cretaceous period.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2021