Boy finds suspected dinosaur egg fossils in flower bed in Guangdong

(ECNS) — A 12-year-old boy recently found two suspected dinosaur egg fossils in a flower bed near his home in Heyuan, Guangdong province, and took one to the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum for identification. 

Huang Zhiqing, director of the office of the Heyuan Institute of Dinosaur Research, initially confirmed that the fossil was round, about 14 centimeters in diameter and well preserved.

Huang later surveyed the site where the fossils were found and transferred the other fossil to the museum for safekeeping. Further examination will determine their provenance.

The boy, Chen Zixi, said he is interested in paleontology and often reads books and materials about dinosaurs in Heyuan.

Heyuan is known as the “hometown of dinosaurs” in China and has more than 20,000 dinosaur egg fossils in its museum collection.

Dinosaur fossils are occasionally unearthed during construction, soil excavation and landscaping work in the area.

In 1996, four primary school students from the same village discovered Heyuan’s first nest of dinosaur egg fossils, marking the beginning of local efforts to protect and study dinosaur fossil resources.

(By Helen Mo & intern Liu Shuangjing)