Dutch researchers find millions-year-old dinosaur egg shell in United States
Scientists from the Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel have discovered a million-year-old dinosaur eggshell in the United States. They believe it to be a fossilized eggshell of a Tyrannosaurus rex, the museum announced. The researchers described their findings in the Acta Palaeontologica Polonica journal.
The Dutch scientists found the eggshell, about the size of a pinky nail, three years ago in the Maastrichtian Lance Formation in Wyoming. Over the past years, they studied the eggshell meticulously to try and determine what type of dinosaur laid it.
The egg didn’t have any embryo material to directly determine which species it was from, so the scientists had to look at other clues, like the shell’s calcium carbonate structure and probable size.
Their tests identified the egg as likely from a Tarbosaurus, a rare type of carnivorous dinosaur known primarily from slightly older Asian strata. The Tarbosaurus is an ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus rex and did not live in the time the eggshell dates from. T. rexes were alive at that time, so the researchers concluded that it was likely a Tyrannosaurus rex egg.
According to the scientists, the fact that this tiny piece of eggshell is so well preserved indicates that more may be found nearby. The Oertijdmuseum’s researchers will spend more time searching for nesting sites in the area.
