Amazingly preserved fossil egg shows dinosaur, bird links: scientists

Scientists say an amazingly well-preserved fossil egg adds more evidence to the close links between dinosaurs and modern birds.

Darla Zelenitsky from the University of Calgary has just published a paper on the egg, originally discovered in China about 20 years ago.

She says the embryo of the therapod dinosaur is curled up inside the egg just like a chicken, with its back against the broad end of the egg.

Zelenitsky says that means the posture predates the appearance of birds and it’s one more birdlike characteristic developed by dinosaurs.