We're not at Jurassic Park—not yet—but it feels like we're getting closer and closer every day, doesn't it?
A rare look inside a fossilized dinosaur egg found in southern China has revealed an exquisitely preserved embryo—and evidence suggesting that some of these prehistoric creatures had even more in common with modern birds than previously thought.
Scientists said the embryo inside the egg, which was laid between 72 million to 66 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period, was that of a two-legged, feathered carnivore known as an oviraptorid. They said, in a paper about the discovery published Tuesday in the journal iScience, the embryo's curled body position—with its back against the blunt end of the 7-inch-long egg and its head between its legs—resembles that of bird embryos.
In the paper, the scientists state that the embryo represents "one of the most complete non-avian dinosaur embryos yet discovered," one that is allowing them an "unprecedented glimpse" of the bone structure of non-avian dinosaurs.
More discoveries of this type will assuredly follow. "It is just a matter of time and luck," one of the researchers told the Wall Street Journal.
