Fossil eggs show dinosaur decline before extinction(1/3)

Artist's depiction of Late Cretaceous oviraptorosaurs(egg thief lizards), hadrosaurs(bulky lizards), and tyrannosaurs living in central China. (Photo provided to China News Service)

Chinese researchers studied over 1,000 fossilized dinosaur eggs and eggshells from the Shanyang Basin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province and found evidence to support the hypothesis that dinosaurs were not very diverse before their extinction and had declined overall during the last part of the Cretaceous.

Photo taken on Sept. 20, 2022 shows the fossilized dinosaur eggs for research in Beijing. (Photo: China News Service/Sun Zifa)

Photo taken on Sept. 20, 2022 shows the fossilized dinosaur eggs for research in Beijing. (Photo: China News Service/Sun Zifa)