Fossil dinosaur eggs discovered at a construction site in China are the smallest that have ever been unearthed, scientists say.
The six eggs were discovered in 2021 in the Ganzhou region during a field survey at a building site.
Live Science reports that the eggs were fossilised within a lump of rock, making it difficult to determine whether they were part of a single nest.
The research team, made up of palaeontologists, geoscientists and evolutionary specialists affiliated with various institutions in the country, published their findings in Historical Biology last week.
After three years of analysis, scientists have since been able to obtain the overall image of the small eggshells and the fossils of the extinct creatures hidden within the rock.
The analysis confirms that the creatures are dinosaurs that lived in the region some 80 million years ago in an era known among archaeologists as the Late Cretaceous.
“We report a partial egg clutch with six complete small eggs from the Upper Cretaceous Tangbian Formation of Ganzhou City,” the team wrote.
Before the discovery, the smallest known dinosaur egg was around 45mm by 400mm by 34mm, but the smallest among those discovered in Ganzhou is only some 29mm in length.
“The egg morphology and eggshell microstructure support it to be the smallest known non-avian theropod egg up to date,” the team stated.
The team said the small size, “irregular egg arrangement, worm-like and nodular ornamentation,” and shell thickness indicated that they likely weren’t laid by known predatory dinosaurs.
The study says the find “increases the diversity of dinosaur eggs in Late Cretaceous and is significant for our understanding of the evolution of theropods in the Late Cretaceous”.
According to the outlet, further research at the site is planned to gain an understanding of the dinosaurs that laid eggs and how their nests were built.
Ganzhou is thought to have one of the richest deposits of egg fossils globally, with physical evidence of former life from various pre-historic reptiles.
