- In MP’s Dhar district, an “egg-in-egg dinosaur egg was found.
- The ovum-in-ovo was highlighted by the fossilized egg’s two entire shells, one within the other, separated by a slight gap, according to researchers.
- This discovery strengthens the argument that, contrary to popular belief, dinosaurs were more closely linked to birds than reptiles,
The first-ever instance of an ovum-in-ovo (egg-in-egg) dinosaur egg has been found by a team of researchers from the University of Delhi and Dhar District Higher Secondary School. Since no “ovum-in-ovo” eggs had ever been discovered in reptiles, the discovery is described by the researchers as a unique and important find.
The unusual titanosaurid dinosaur egg was found in the Bagh area of MP’s Dhar district, and experts claimed it might offer crucial insights into whether dinosaurs had reproductive biology comparable to those of their close relatives, crocodiles, and birds or to turtles and lizards.
The egg was found in an unexpectedly good condition, enabling the researchers to determine that it was an egg within an egg. The ovum-in-ovo was highlighted by the fossilized egg’s two entire shells that were nestled one within the other with a slight space between them, according to researchers. They also took cross-sectional photos of the egg and discovered that it resembled ovum-in-ovo in contemporary birds in a striking way.
Such eggs are typical in birds when one egg is forced back into the bird’s body and into the reproductive system, where it combines with another egg that is still forming.
Contrary to crocodiles and birds, which have segmented reproductive tracts with separate sections for membrane and shell deposition, it was formerly hypothesized that dinosaurs had a reproductive function comparable to that of turtles and other reptiles.
“The finding of ovum-in-ovo egg from a titanosaurid nest opens up the possibility that sauropod dinosaurs had an oviduct morphology similar to those of crocodiles or birds and they may have adapted to a mode of the egg-laying characteristic of birds,” said Mr. Harsh Dhiman, a researcher at DU and the paper’s primary author.
