(ORDO NEWS) — On the territory of modern China, they found a fairly large clutch of eggs that belonged to a giant turtle. Moreover, it was made almost 90 million years ago.
One of the eggs, for some unknown reason, did not have time to hatch and remained intact throughout this time. The embryo in it is perfectly preserved, which made the scientists very happy. It is reported by Live Science.
Found an ancient egg by a farmer and donated it to a local university. Experts analyzed and identified that the embryo belongs to a turtle that lived during the time of the dinosaurs.
Thanks to this sample, specialists will be able to learn more about the terrestrial turtles of the Yuchelys nanyangensis species, which were destroyed by the fall of an asteroid about 66 million years ago.
The researchers noted that although the eggshells are thick and strong enough, they did allow enough water to pass through. The clutch itself was located deep enough underground in a humid environment and this allowed the egg to survive perfectly and not dry out for millions of years.
The turtles lived a certain way of life, had thick-shell eggs and nested underground. This helped them successfully survive for a long time, but when the climate became cooler, they were unable to quickly adapt to new changes.
This was one of the reasons for the extinction of the species at the end of the Cretaceous period. Darda Zelenitski, who was researching an embryo found in China, spoke about this.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.