70 million year old fossil discovered baby yingliang
miners discover perfectly preserved historic egg seventy million years ago give or take a
few years a gawky beak dinosaur laid a big blue egg in the warm rocks at yingliang
a remote mining village in southern china she then for some unknown reason abandoned the egg and fled
her exquisite almost full term baby never had a chance to hatch who knows why this spindly scaled
grounded bird had to leave her baby behind for humans to discover eons later perhaps it was due
to a natural catastrophe a ravenous predator or maybe an innate lack of motherly instincts that
dissuaded her from sticking around not just another fossil her egg incubated in the warm
protective rocks of what is now the property of ying liang tita mines in guangdong china
it is not unusual at all for miners to casually discover stone treasures and fossilized eggs they
are embedded in the chalk and clay strata that lines the mine and that has baked for centuries in
south asia's hot and humid climate precious stones and fossils unearthed by miners are always passed
over to the experts in the culture division of this environmentally aware mining company
that passes them on to scientists from all over the world for further research and analysis
many of the discovered prehistoric artifacts are exhibited at the local Yingliang stone
nature museum that currently has 75 chinese natural treasures on display
newly hatched scientific proof the 17 meter long teal blue egg was unearthed by miners in
the year 2000 but the secret lurking in its yoke was not noted until very recently a study in the
December 2021 issue of journal science found that this particular ancient egg contains a real jewel
an almost perfect prenatal dinosaur with its head and beak tucked beneath its legs
and back curled against the wall of its shell the coiled position of the hatchling in its
furred almost feathery appearance lends proof to the theory that the birds we know today
developed from a class of dinosaurs known as theropods who was baby yingliang's mom
the prehistoric mama of this perfectly preserved embryo is an overwrapped pterosaur a theropod that
is the sprightly ancestor of all birds walking on earth today theropods can technically be described
as dinosaurs that look like birds but these big awkward goose steppers couldn't fly if their lives
depended on the inability to take flight might explain why mom abandoned her egg as she was
probably not that much larger than a peacock or a wild turkey and probably looked quite delicious
to larger predators theropods were preyed upon by massive carnivorous four-legged tetrapods
that sometimes weighed up to four tons in fact evidence provided by baby Yingliangshows that
his mom probably tasted just like chicken given the way he was curled up in its shell
exactly the same way as a modern-day chick what did baby ying liang's mom look like
baby ying liang's mother looked like a cross between an ostrich and a crocodile and was not
the nicest of creatures her name literally translates to mean egg thief lizard which
means she might have met her end while caught quaffing the innards of another dinosaur's egg
the four sets of buck teeth protruding from her short parrot-like beak were perfect for piercing
the shells of eggs and her reptilian instincts did not prevent her from eating her own eggs
she was almost all lizard with a light fuzz and just a few feathers around the neck and tail
she is classified as a non-avian bird which means that she was permanently grounded
but could use her long legs to sprint nimbly across the hot and steamy landscape
just like ostriches do today unfortunately she could not out sprint the fallout from a meteor
hitting the earth and like all the other dinosaurs from that time has no descendants
the baby yingliang egg survived a mass extinction event oviraptorosaurs thrived in southern during
the cretaceous era which lasted 79 million years and saw the emergence of the first plants and
flowers shallow inland seas covered the earth and massive tetrapods meaning dinosaurs with four legs
thrived until a massive extinction event vanquished them all only smaller creatures
mainly those who weighed less than 50 pounds such as some turtles reptiles and marine life
survived this spectacular fiery apocalypse the meteor that collided with the earth at the end
of this era released an energy that was equivalent to several million nuclear weapons all detonating
at the same time this makes the survival of the baby yingliang egg even more remarkable
as it was not somehow poached to ashes by the heat of the explosion the fact that it is here on earth
at all is some kind of miracle to be preserved at all the baby yingliang egg must have been covered
by an inland sea for a time or fallen deeply into a cooler clay pit during the catastrophe
the presence of a perfectly intact embryonic fossil like this especially from an era with
such a cataclysmic ending is very rare indeed it should have been blown to smithereens
baby ying liang might have had a sibling and oviraptorosaurus usually laid their eggs in pairs
so it is quite possible that baby ying liang might have had a twin
the question is what happened to the other egg it might have been consumed by the fires of the
mass extinction event or eaten by a predator it might even have been breakfast for mom who
might have been desperate for food at some point especially if ash clouds were covering the earth
it is also still possible that baby yingliang's twin egg is still launched in the cretaceous era
layers of strata lining the ying liang tita mine waiting to be discovered by a miner
the possibility that baby yingliang's twin egg may be eventually discovered is quite likely
as workers at the yingliang have uncovered hundreds of fossilized eggs over the years
how baby yingliang was discovered unbelievably the baby yingliang egg was nothing special
just another collected fossil from the depths of the mine gathering dust on a warehouse shelf
preparations were being made to open the brand new yengliang stone nature museum in 2015. the
plan was to exhibit all of the area's geological and prehistoric treasures in a single location
a technician creating displays for the museum discovered that this fossilized egg was not quite
like the others found in the nearby yingliang mine it resembled a giant blue pharmaceutical pill
he chipped away at the large oblong shell and was shocked when a nest of fully formed bones nudged
through the cracks he then notified lita xing of the china university of geosciences in beijing
who then assembled a team of noted researchers from all over the world
headed by university edinburgh researchers steve broussard and fionn y summa professor ma's initial
reaction was love at first sight wow this is the most perfect dinosaur embryo i have ever seen
zeleniski a researcher at the university of calgary was fascinated by the new find i couldn't
believe my eyes because it was so perfectly preserved she marveled in a quote to national
geographic magazine in december 2021 the entire team then proceeded to study and perform cat scans
on the egg and also engaged illustrator julius cistoni to do colorful realistic eye-catching
portraits of their new baby that captured the attention of dinosaur fans both expert and
hobbyists and from all over the world baby ying liang is a social media sensation the introduction
of baby yingliang on twitter december 21 2021 brought raves of amazement from paleontologists
who had never seen such an unbelievably intact embryo perched in a pre-hatching posture
the research team and co-authors of the research paper bragged like proud parents
on twitter about their new baby paleontologist and first author of the research paper steve
broussard enhanced the sense of anticipation at the unveiling of their pride and joy with
his tweet on december 20th keep your eyes open something will hatch tomorrow hashtag dinosaurs
he posted along with a tantalizing illustration of the hatchling in its shell peering with one
big yellow eye at the viewer through its gnarly clenched claws as if it was playing peek-a-boo
images of the tightly curled dinosaur performed by mri scans were then released the next day on
social media revealing the dainty ivory colored skeleton of the ancient non-bird
embedded in a milky chocolate brown silt and encased in a turquoise brown veined egg it
was the bird version of a preserved mummy the reaction was a mixture of awe and fascination
and for many of their colleagues a welcome arrival just in time for christmas
baby ying liang is one of those discoveries that restores one's faith in science it is remarkable
to get a glimpse into the very first stages of life of animals that lived 70 million years ago
glowed lindsey leno a researcher at north carolina university to national geographic magazine
welcome baby ying liang crowed research team member lida zheng on twitter our baby has just
arrived echoed professor bersot on twitter welcome baby ying liang a gorgeous fossil dinosaur embryo
preserved inside its egg you're looking here at a baby dinosaur not too long before it would have
hatched even the name of the final published study an exquisitely preserved in-ovo theropod dinosaur
embryo sheds light on avian-like pre-hatching postures is an expression of how much baby ying
liang is revered as a paleontology rock star and is a herald of further scientific enlightenment
why is this discovery so exciting fionn y sama the scottish joint first author of the published study
commented in a press release dinosaur embryos are some of the rarest fossils and most of them
are incomplete with the bones dislocated we are very excited about the discovery of baby yingliang
it is preserved in great condition and helps us answer a lot of questions about dinosaur growth
and reproduction with it upon closer examination the embryo was found inside a 17 centimeter long
egg and the creature is estimated to be 27 centimeters long from head to tail
only a few parts of the skeleton are missing just a bit of a foreleg and a section of a tail
making it the most complete oviraptorosaur dinosaur embryo ever found only two others
have ever been found but their bones were too scrambled inside their shells for researchers to
get a clear picture of how baby non-avians were born baby ying liang is in the chicken position
babying liang's head grazes his belly with his knees bent over tiny sprouting forelimbs his back
is curved at one end of the egg so his upper body appears folded over his long lower legs
this is very similar to how today's chicken hatchlings develop a phenomenon known as tucking
the developing chick curls into a tight ball with its head between its knees before busting
out of its shell the appearance of this curling up inside of the shell aud ma the head of the study
it is interesting to see this dinosaur embryo and a chicken embryo pose in a similar way
inside the egg which possibly indicates similar pre-hatching behaviors this makes baby ying liang
one of the few fossils in the world to definitely describe the connection between oviraptorosaur and
today's modern avians especially when it comes to the birding behaviors displayed just before birth
where is baby yingliang now the world's most perfectly preserved embryonic dinosaur now
finds its home in the famous ying liang stone nature museum a beautiful brutalist structure
that was set up by the yingliang mining company to house the many incredible fossils found at their
mining sites over the years it has returned home to where it was found in the first place
by a perceptive technician who noticed the crack in its shell after pulling it off a shelf what
was previously just speculation has now been confirmed by this spectacular fossil fight
the baby ying liang discovery proves that modern birds descended from the dinosaurs that roam the
earth 70 million years ago this makes it one of the most significant discoveries for the
paleontology world since the dawn of the new millennium but it also answers the question
which came first the chicken or the egg the answer is neither dinosaurs came first then the chickens