The city is situated in the Guandong province of China, and its local museum holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of fossilized dinosaur eggs. The collection numbered 10,0008 at the time of the award in 2004, and nearly 17,000 egg fossils have been discovered there since 1996.
Large, completely intact eggs discovered under city streets
Although it may seem like a drop in the ocean, this latest discovery makes that number grow a little tiny bit. Workers repairing roads came across 43 fossilized dinosaur eggs, encased in red sandstone. Some of the eggs measured as much as 5 inches in diameter, and 19 of them were perfectly intact.
“These eggs are large in size, and one even has a diameter of 13 centimeters [more than five inches],” said Du Yanli, curator of the city’s dinosaur museum. Huang Zhiqing, deputy director of the Heyuan Museum, said that the discovery marked the first time that fossilized eggs have been found in the busy city center.
Major roadworks were suspended while a team made up of researchers and construction workers excavated the fossils. At the time of writing it was not known which dinosaur species the eggs belong to. Researchers said that they would carry out further analysis at the museum.
Staggering number of dinosaur remains discovered in Heyuan
The majority of the Heyuan museum collection is made up of eggs belonging to oviraptorid and duck-billed dinosaurs, which lived approximately 89 million years ago.
However it is not just eggs which have been discovered in the city. Since 2006, 11 fossilized skeletons and nearly 200 footprint fossils have been found. It is thought that the number of fossilized eggs discovered in the city is due to the red sandstone found underneath its surface.
Although residents of the city may be getting used to the discovery of dinosaur eggs and fossils in their hometown, it is always exciting to hear of another discovery in the world of paleontology. Heyuan could tighten its grip on its Guinness World Record if further discoveries are made.
