Paleontologist: dinosaur embryo scanned in Dutch hospital can teach us a lot

The dinosaur embryo that may have been found inside a petrified egg at the Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel can teach us a great deal about dinosaurs, said paleontologist Anne Schulp of Utrecht University. The egg has already been examined at the Jeroen Bosch hospital, but must be studied again abroad.

It has been concluded at the Den Bosch hospital that there is material inside the 70 million year old egg, but a particle accelerator in Switzerland or France can determine even more precisely whether it is indeed the remains of an embryo, explained curator Jonathan Wallaard of the Oertijdmuseum. The museum must first submit an application for the follow-up study. All in all, according to Wallaard, it could take at least half a year before there is a definite answer.

"So they are certainly not there yet," said Schulp. The museum immediately announced "the first steps" of the study, but whether it is actually an embryo remains to be seen, according to the paleontologist. She emphasized that she has not yet been able to view high quality images of the suspected embryo.

If the suspicion is correct, then that is good news for science, said Schulp. There is still so much to learn about dinosaur eggs. "We can potentially learn a lot of new things about how they grew and about their nests with this find." But little is known about the eggs themselves, like which dinosaur hatched from which egg. "We've been finding that out more and more in recent years and this find can contribute to that."

The embryo would be a special discovery in any case. Only dozens of dinosaur embryos have been found worldwide, said Schulp. The Naturalis museum in Leiden, where the professor is also a researcher, does have a few eggs, but there were no remains inside. As far as she knows, other Dutch collections do not contain any embryos either.

According to Wallaard, it is quite certain that there is a dinosaur embryo in the egg. "It's a closed egg. What else could it be?" The Oertijdmuseum is getting ready to welcome many extra visitors because of the discovery.

The egg will be exhibited in a display case until it is removed for further research abroad. The museum also owns about 180 other dinosaur eggs. Wallaard also wants these to be investigated for potentially interesting content.