Highlights
- •A Late Cretaceous oviraptorid theropod dinosaur embryo is preserved in-ovo
- •Its head lies ventral to the body, and the back curled along the egg's blunt pole
- •Its posture is similar to that of a late-stage modern bird embryo
- •Avian tucking behavior possibly originated among non-avian theropods
Summary
Despite the discovery of many dinosaur eggs and nests over the past 100 years, articulated in-ovo
embryos are remarkably rare. Here we report an exceptionally preserved,
articulated oviraptorid embryo inside an elongatoolithid egg, from the
Late Cretaceous Hekou Formation of southern China. The head lies ventral
to the body, with the feet on either side, and the back curled along
the blunt pole of the egg, in a posture previously unrecognized in a
non-avian dinosaur, but reminiscent of a late-stage modern bird embryo.
Comparison to other late-stage oviraptorid embryos suggests that
prehatch oviraptorids developed avian-like postures late in incubation,
which in modern birds are related to coordinated embryonic movements
associated with tucking — a behavior controlled by the central nervous
system, critical for hatching success. We propose that such pre-hatching
behavior, previously considered unique to birds, may have originated
among non-avian theropods, which can be further investigated with
additional discoveries of embryo fossils.
Read The Full Paper Here. Embryo art by renown paleo-artist Julius Csotonyi
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