The exquisitely conserved agate specimen, which a Charles Fraser had
brought back from central India, was delivered to the museum in 1883.
We occasionally are unable to see what is directly in front of us. At the
Natural History Museum in London, that is precisely what took place.
A mineral fragment that had been contentedly residing in the mineralogy
collection of the museum for 175 years was actually a dinosaur embryo. The
exhibit claims that the agate originated inside a 60 million year old
dinosaur embryo.
According to a news statement, Charles Fraser brought this exquisitely
preserved specimen of agate to the museum in 1883 after collecting it in
central India.
Species-specific titanosaur egg
This strangely spherical agate was discovered in the collection by mineral
keeper Robin Hansen. Later, Hansen brought the fossil to Paul Barrett and
Susannah Maidment, the museum's dinosaur specialists, for additional
study.
They found that the agate features had characteristics of a dinosaur egg,
including size, form, and substance. To ascertain if it was an egg or not,
the researchers used CT scans to check for smaller features.
The egg belonged to a titanosaur, which wandered India during the
Cretaceous era, according to close study. The exterior texture of the
specimen indicated clutches, verifying the genus. The ova of this species
were tiny, and it produced clutches of many eggs as opposed to just one.
Additionally, this egg resembled the titanosaur embryos found in China and
Argentina.
The research team thinks that the local volcanic action is what caused the
agatized embryo to develop. The dinosaur embryos may have been buried by a
volcanic eruption after they were deposited. The agate may have formed soon
after the silicates leached inside the eggshells.
But how did it end up in the library of mineralogy? The team claims that
since dinosaur embryos were not officially acknowledged at the time, this
one may be the very first.
"This instance is a prime illustration of the significance of museum
holdings. Using the science that was accessible at the time, it was properly
classified as an agate in 1883. The agate has filled this spherical
structure, which turns out to be a dinosaur egg, and we have only just
realized that this example has something extra unique, said Robin in a
statement.
In the show Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur, the egg is presently
on display.