Nest of Dinosaur Eggs Discovered in Russia

A nest of dinosaur eggs has been found in Russia’s Far East near the Chinese border--the first such discovery in Russia, according to a news report.

However, a prominent scientist immediately cast doubt on the find, saying there was no immediate proof that the objects were indeed dinosaur eggs.

The Interfax news agency on Jan. 13 quoted Vitaly Stepanov, deputy head of the Amur Research Center, as saying that the eggs found near the Amur River are 70 million to 90 million years old.

The report did not say which dinosaur species the eggs belonged to, nor did it provide any details about their number and condition.

Local researchers sent fossil examples to Moscow’s Paleontology Institute. The first glance at them left the institute’s leading dinosaur eggs expert, Konstantin Mikhailov, skeptical.

“I seriously doubt that the things they have found are dinosaur eggs,” he said in a telephone interview. “They are shaped like eggs, but they don’t have any signs of shell.”

Mikhailov speculated that the strange round objects could be the product of some geological process on the sandy banks of the Amur River, although he stopped short of ruling out that they would prove to be eggs.

Dinosaur eggs have been found at around 200 sites worldwide, with China, Mongolia and North America being the richest digging grounds. The discoveries have included dozens of dinosaur embryos inside fossilized eggs.