In a first, a fossilized egg is found preserved inside an ancient bird
The offspring may have been the cause of its mother’s demise, scientists suspect
MOMMY BIRD This ancient avian, named Avimaia schweitzerae, lived about 110 million years ago in what is now northwestern China. Analyses of the fossil revealed that the bird’s body contained an unlaid egg (lighter brown smudge) when it died.
A.M. Bailleul et al/Nature Communications 2019