6.11 Theropod egg

This is a cast of part of an oviraptorosaur dinosaur egg. Note the elongate shape of the egg. Egg shape is highly variable in dinosaurs, with some being spherical and others more elongate. This variation may partly reflect the type of dinosaur that produced the egg (e.g. sauropods tend to lay spherical eggs), and may also indicate the way the eggs were stacked in the nest.

There are now several specimens known with an adult animal brooding on the nest of eggs as seen here.

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