Detailed Embryo Bones Found in Dinosaur Egg
A North Carolina State University graduate student has discovered well-preserved and incredibly detailed remains of a dinosaur embryo in an egg unearthed more than 30 years ago.
The dinosaur is thought to be a Lophorhothan , a duck-billed dinosaur that lived in the area that is now Alabama.
The egg was discovered by three high school students in 1970, but researchers did not know what it contained.
James Lamb, who borrowed the egg for a research project, noticed what appeared to be leg bones in a hole subsequently cut through the shell. He took it to Dr. Prescott Atkinson of Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, who performed a CT scan on it. Atkinson was one of the students who first found the egg. The CT confirmed the embryo’s presence and revealed the orientation of its bones.
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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II
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