Scientists have found an incredible fossil: a dinosaur that has made it has yet to be discovered

Dinosaur oviraptor eggs were found in the petrified nest. This can be said because part of the fossil is the father that passed the eggs. The skeleton of this ostrich-like theropod was found in more than 20 eggs, at least seven of which were about to hatch and contained embryos, according to Science Alert.

This ancient scene is unprecedented evidence that dinosaurs laid eggs and incubated them for a long time.

“Such a discovery, a petrified action, is extremely rare in dinosaur fossils,” said Matt Lamanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

“Although several adult oviraptor eggs have been found in egg nests in the past, embryos have never been found within those eggs,” the researcher continued.

Since the 1980s, paleontologists have been able to find numerous nests that contain petrified eggs. In rare cases, the skeletons of the parents were also above them, but it was impossible to say with certainty that the eggs had been taken. Scientists could not reject the theory that the detected dinosaurs were killed in an attempt to protect their eggs, not necessarily by hatching them.

It is more reminiscent of the behavior of modern crocodiles than of birds.

After analyzing the oxygen isotopes in the embryos of this finding, the researchers found that their incubation temperature corresponded to the body temperature of the parents, which ranged from 30 to 38 degrees Celsius while they were sitting.

“This specimen shows that the babies were ready to hatch from the eggs, and the oviraptorid took care of its nest for quite some time. “The dinosaur was a loving father who finally gave his life,” Lamanna said.

Interestingly, not all embryos had the same stage of development. This indicates that the eggs may have hatched at different times; this trait is believed to have appeared later and only in some birds.

Although oviraptors are often considered an intermediate stage in this evolutionary process, it appears that they were able to move away from the transition on their own at one point, suggesting that the evolution of bird reproduction was not a simple linear process.