Dinosaur egg scanned at Dutch hospital shows hatchling’s fossilized remains

Researchers at the Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel found the fossilized remains of an embryo in a dinosaur egg by putting it through a CT scan at the Jeroen Bosch hospital in Den Bosch. “The egg is about 70 million years old,” museum curator Maarten de Rijke said to Omroep Brabant. He called the discovery “world news” because there are less than ten dinosaur embryos worldwide.

The museum put 33 eggs through the CT scan at the Den Bosch hospital. The researchers want to use the embryos to investigate how a dinosaur developed in the egg. The egg will now go to Switzerland for a scan using more specialized equipment.

The chance of finding an embryo was minimal. “But because we have a total of 182 eggs in the museum, also of different species, there was a reasonable chance,” De Rijke said to the broadcaster. They also found something in two of the other 32 eggs, but not nearly as clear as with the first egg.

The researchers were hoping to find bones or embryos. “This allows us to get a better picture of the development of the dinosaur in the egg. Very little is known about that,” De Rijke said. They are very excited to send the egg to Switzerland. “They have an even finer particle accelerator there, and we can see something at a deeper level.”