Scientists have announced the discovery of an unprecedented fossil of a baby dinosaur curled up perfectly inside its egg. The dinosaur embryo, exquisitely preserved from at least 66 million years ago was discovered in Ganzhou, southern China. It is believed to be a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur, and has been nicknamed Baby Yingliang after the name of the Chinese museum which houses the fossil. Researcher Dr Fion Waisum Ma said it is "the best dinosaur embryo ever found in history". Baby Yingliang measures 10.6in (27cm) long from head to tail, and rests inside a 6.7 inch-long egg at the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in China. The egg was first uncovered in 2000, but put into storage for 10 years.
It was only when construction work started on the museum and old fossils were being sorted through that researchers directed their attention to the egg, which they suspected was holding an embryo inside.
The researchers from China, the UK and Canada studied the positions of Baby Yingliang and other previously found oviraptorid embryos. They resolved that the dinosaurs were moving and changing poses before hatching in a way similar to baby birds.
In modern birds, such movements are related with a behavior called tucking, which is controlled by the central nervous system and is critical for hatching success.
Part of the dinosaur's body is still covered by rock and researchers will use advanced scanning techniques to create an image of its full skeleton.
