Dinosaur embryo study supports ancestral link to birds

FUZHOU, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) — A new study examining an embryo from a fossilized dinosaur egg has provided further evidence supporting the notion that modern birds evolved from dinosaurs.

The embryo fossil was discovered in rocks in southeast China around the year 2000 and housed in the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in Fujian Province, where it was dubbed “Baby Yingliang”.

Estimated to be 27 cm long from head to tail, the creature lies inside a 17-cm-long egg. Paleontologists believe it belongs to a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur, dating back 72 to 66 million years, within the Cretaceous Period.