68 Million Years Old Egg discovered from Antarctica

In 2011, on the Seymour Island of Antarctica, a group of scientists from South American Nation Chile discovered a fossil 200 meters away from the spot where the fossil of a 10-meter long Mosasaur (an ancient reptile) was unearthed.

The fossil, since then was kept at a museum in Chile and was named ‘The Thing’ as for over the next 7 years scientists kept on trying to resolve the football-sized mysterious fossil.

Finally, on 17^th June 2020, a study was published in the Journal Nature, according to which the fossil named “The Thing’ was the second-largest egg in terms of size (29 by 20 centimeters) that has been discovered to date. It is the second largest to the Madagascan Elephant Bird (extinct) egg and also the largest soft-shelled egg on record.

Scientists however in their study were not able to identify the animal that laid the egg. The animal that had laid the egg could be up to 17 meters tall and at least 7 meters long.

There have been opinions from scientists that the fossil egg might belong to a Mosasaur, in this case then this could be the only Mosasaur fossil egg to have been discovered to date.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2020