Two fossilized dinosaur eggs the size of cannonballs filled with calcite crystals have been discovered
Three eggs were dug up from the soil of the pool,but only two survive. The researchers who made the discovery noted that the third was "lost and is still in the process of being collected." It is unclear whether it was lost, damaged during excavations, or stolen. The remaining two have been classified as belonging to Shixingoolithus qianshanensis, making them a recently described oospecies. Oospecies, oorodes, and oofamilias are taxonomic names for dinosaurs known only from their eggs.
According to the researchers, the eggs are "almostspheroidal in shape,” they are about the size of a cannonball. The length of the object is from 105 to 137 mm, and the width is from 99 to 134 mm. One of the two eggs collected was found to be partially broken; its inner surface is “covered with a layer of calcite crystals,” the researchers write.
Calcite is a carbonate mineral, usuallyfound in the eggs of birds and dinosaurs. Calcite crystals form when calcium carbonate, also involved in strengthening bones, teeth and nails, is separated from the structure of the eggshell and deposited on the inner surface as slow-growing crystals.
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