Robert Reisz, a professor of paleontology at the University of Toronto in Mississauga, has become something of a celebrity these days. His discovery of one of the oldest known examples of a dinosaur embryo has shed new light on a long ago world.
Professor Reisz’s find was unearthed in the Yunnan province of China, and was one of the topics of his recent presentation in the 2013 Canadian Perspectives lecture series. Flyer printing companies provided promotional materials for the lecture, and it was well attended by interested members of the community.
The egg in question is believed to be over 190 million years old, and it contains the embryo of a long necked plant eating dinosaur that was bipedal and almost 30 feet long when it was fully grown.
One of the most interesting aspects of the bones are that they show evidence that the dinosaur moved around in the egg before hatching, just as modern birds do today. It is also believed that in order to evade predators, the dinosaur grew very quickly once it left the egg.
Professor Reisz’s discovery has made him the talk of the town in the paleontology community, and has even earned him a coveted spot on the cover of Nature. Nature is a weekly journal, which is considered to be one of the most important publications for reporting the latest news of the natural world.
With so little known about dinosaurs, every discovery helps scientists learn a little bit more about them and the ancient space they inhabited.
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