A group of researchers found in Japan, allegedly the world’s smallest fossilized dinosaur egg, said in a Tuesday press release from the Japanese University of Tsukuba (Ibaraki Prefecture).
Elongated egg with a length of only 4.5 cm and a width of 2 cm was found in the sediments of the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era in the vicinity of the city of Tamba in Hyogo Prefecture in Western Japan, and its age is about 110 million years.
The excavations and studies done jointly by scientists at the University of Tsukuba, Museum of man and nature in Hyogo Prefecture and the canadian University of calgary. They believe that the unique egg belonged to the dwarf carnivorous theropods – the suborder of moving on two legs lizards, which also include a giant Tyrannosaurus.
Researchers believe that the Compromise they came across a nest of dwarf dinosaurs, according to the density of the location of fossils and shell fragments of eggs.
A new species the world’s smallest eggs of the dwarf dinosaur was named Himeoolithus murakamii in which hime in Japanese means "small", and oolithus Greek – "a stone egg". The second word in the name is taken from the name of the Japanese scientist Shigeru Murakami, who first found eggs of dinosaurs in the region of Tamba.
During the excavations from January to March 2019, scientists discovered in the same area four fossilized eggs and about 1300 other finds of fragments of eggshells and skeletons of small vertebrates. It is believed that in the area of Tamba there are many species of dwarf dinosaur to date unearthed six types of their eggs, and scientists hope to understand what are the environmental conditions at that time could give such a variety of dinosaurs.
