A long hunt for eggs: scientists have succeeded, thanks to X-rays, in unraveling the mystery of the interior of 200 million year-old dinosaur eggs. They revealed tiny skulls of embryos, according to a study released Thursday.
These embryos of “Massospondylus carinatus”, a herbivore 5 meters long, which are among the oldest in the world, were discovered in 1976 in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa. Due to their fragility and very small size, they have long been difficult to study, due to the lack of a non-destructive scientific method.
But in 2015, an international scientific team brought seven eggs (of which only three contained embryos) to the European synchrotron in Grenoble (ESRF) in France, to scan them, explains the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The powerful X-rays produced by the ESRF, via electrons accelerated at the speed of light in a ring more than 800 meters long, revealed an unprecedented level of detail, revealing up to the bone cells. These data notably made it possible to reconstruct a 3D model of the baby dinosaur skull, only about two centimeters long.
Young embryos
Scientists compared their results to embryos of the closest modern relatives of dinosaurs (crocodiles, turtles, lizards, etc.). They found similarities in the stages of development, especially in the way the skull grows in the egg.
“What surprised me most was how younger the embryos were than we thought,” Kimberley Chapelle, the study’s lead author, told AFP. were only 60% of their embryonic development.
Development similar to today’s reptiles
They also had two types of teeth preserved in their jaws, the first of which “would have fallen out before hatching, just like geckos and crocodiles today.” “They’re smaller than the tip of a toothpick!” Added the researcher from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
The study concludes that these dinosaurs “developed in their eggs in a similar fashion to their reptilian parents, whose embryonic development pattern has not changed in 200 million years”, according to a press release accompanying the publication of the study.
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