Dinosaur eggs said found in Russia

Dinosaur eggs said found in Russia

ca.news.yahoo.com

GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - Geologists in Russia's volatile Chechnya region have discovered what they believe to be fossilized dinosaur eggs laid by one of the huge extinct reptiles that roamed the Earth more than 60 million years ago.
"We've found about 40 eggs so far, the exact number has not been established," said Said-Emin Dzhabrailov, a geologist at the Chechen State University.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow!

Talk about "priceless"! I'd love to crack one of these open, so-to-speak, and take a look inside. If they really were preserved inside of rock all these years, there must be a petrified organism.

This stuff fascinates me more than any other topic.

Blimey! That's a great find.

First the Mammoth and now this Dinosaur Egg.

Let the cloning process BEGIN!!!

reply to post by CALGARIAN


Imagine the omelettes!

Seriously, though, there are a bunch of other areas where intact dinosaur eggs have been found, aren't there? I was hoping you were going to say they had found intact eggs that were not fossilized. It will still be interesting to see what an MRI cross-section of such a thing would be like (or whatever tech they use for cracking these open).

I'm thinking that would make a killer omelet. if they could only find a side of brontosaurus bacon that would be one helluva hangover breakfast.

Bah, I hate it when they call Dino's "reptiles", they are not..

Anyhoo, nice find by the Russians. These sort of things are quite rare and a wealth of info can be gleamed from such finds.

Originally posted by stumason
Bah, I hate it when they call Dino's "reptiles", they are not..

What are they then?

Cool find, i love this stuff.

Found some pictures of some eggs where you can see the embryo inside.

A whole nest
benedante.blogspot.com...



The nest was actually for sale.
www.msnbc.msn.com...

The nest of raptors, fierce predatory dinosaurs, is expected to fetch between $180,000 and $200,000.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

Originally posted by goochball

Originally posted by stumason
Bah, I hate it when they call Dino's "reptiles", they are not..

What are they then?

Something closer to birds, there was even recent evidence that a close cousin of T. Rex was covered in downy fur like feathers.

Anyway, those eggs are HUGE. HUGE! As far as I have heard watching documentaries, dino eggs didn't get larger then like a melon... Partly because the height they would be dropped from (some think they may have had a egg tube for lowering eggs) and the size of the adults. Is it at all possible these couldn't be dinosaur eggs but some sort of strange geological thing?

When the article said "Up to a meter" my first thought was that had to be a typo but the pictures does show what looks like massive eggs... Crazy. But as always, wait for the real science to weight in and get some cat scans / xrays to check the interior.

Right now I am thinking incorrect identification.

reply to post by CALGARIAN


Egg's are common enough that many are available to private collectors. When China first opened up, before the laws where changed to stop their export, many made their way to the market in the US. In fact I own one myself.

The one I have is from a Hadrosaur. There were many of those around for a time, but now you have to be careful as the Chinese got really good at faking them. The one I have was collected before that nonsense started to happen.

I also have a complete Keichousaurus I bought from a man from NYC who had it on their office wall. They acquired it on a trip to China as one of the first to go there on business after Nixon opened the door. I bid on it not knowing if it was real and got it way to cheap in fact. It has been authenticated since and is worth far more than I paid. I've seen maybe twenty others from the same area since then for sale in the US. The one I have is nearly perfect and so complete, no restoration was needed.

Some eggs do exist with the juvenile still intact inside. Those are very rare. These are not however the original eggs, they are true fossils replaced by minerals. The egg I have is not one of the best with only half the shell still intact however. Still it made a nice addition to my collection.

reply to post by goochball


Dinosaur is to reptile as Chicken is to lizard.
Chicken, or any bird with those scaled feet is actually closer to dinosaur than any reptiles according to current paradigm.

Thus, dinosaur is not reptile, but dinosaur, or whatever you might want to call the precursor to birds.
There are similarities to reptiles, but, dinosaurs may have very well been warm blooded unlike reptiles, more like birds.

Originally posted by CALGARIAN
Wow!

Talk about "priceless"! I'd love to crack one of these open, so-to-speak, and take a look inside. If they really were preserved inside of rock all these years, there must be a petrified organism.

This stuff fascinates me more than any other topic.

edit on 17-4-2012 by CALGARIAN because: (no reason given)

So a fossilized alien wouldn't fascinate you more?

Originally posted by Mianeye
Cool find, i love this stuff.
The nest was actually for sale.

I've seen a clutch (is that the word?) of fossilised dinosaur eggs for sale in a shop in Whistler. Canadians know where that is. These came from China, I believe. Very cool!

Originally posted by goochball

Originally posted by stumason
Bah, I hate it when they call Dino's "reptiles", they are not..

What are they then?

They are a subgroup of Archosaurs, of which reptiles are one branch and birds/dinosaurs the other. If you call a dinosaur a reptile, then you're calling birds reptiles, which they are not.

reply to post by CrikeyMagnet

Imagine the omelettes!

lol, rotten eggs x sixty million years = bad idea

I find it funny and ironic how one of natures most ferocious killers (T-Rex) slowly turned into Sunday dinner (chicken) and the velociraptors closest relative is the turkey (I think). Nature can play cruel games.

And before anyone says it, I know the T-Rex didn't evolve into a chicken, they share DNA.

I would love to know what was related to the seagull, that must have been one evil S.O.B dino.

Originally posted by woogleuk
I would love to know what was related to the seagull, that must have been one evil S.O.B dino

Haha, indeed! Or then again, knowing the twists of irony nature likes to play, it was probably the nicest dino of the lot that went "bad"..

I am not sure they are eggs. The largest egg known was no bigger than a basketball. Those look like large concretions or nodules. I could be wrong but I do not think they are eggs.

Concretions: en.wikipedia.org...

Nodule: en.wikipedia.org...(geology)

This link says it is unlikely true.

www.abc.net.au...

But a palaeontologist in Moscow questioned the authenticity of the reported discovery.

"Unfortunately, it's not true. Dinosaurs laid small eggs," Valentina Nazarova from Moscow State University's palaeontology department said.

She added that dinosaurs probably never lived in the mountainous North Caucasus.

"Dinosaurs didn't lay eggs while jumping about like mountain goats," she said.

"If they want to create a legend for tourists, they should have said the eggs were laid by a mythical roc bird," she said, referring to a giant bird that features in the Arabian Nights tales.

"I am sincerely sorry for them, but I also wouldn't want to go against science."

Raist

reply to post by Blaine91555

Kinda neat to hear from someone who has their own pretty complete dino fossils. Most of the people I associate with only seem to have pieces.

reply to post by Raist


Has the person writing the article even seen these things in person? Have they done any testing to prove that they were not eggs? No they didn't and until there is scientific proof that they are not eggs I will keep an open mind. Them stating that the area is a mountain range means nothing. Was it a mountain range three million years ago? The earth changed since then. I see problems in some of the sciences that can only be corrected by removing the problematic people interpreting evidence negatively. I'll wait and see what real evidence is presented before commenting on authenticy of the fossils.