There’s A Dinosaur In This Egg!

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Adapted from Scholastic News, Maria Jose Serra, Edition 4, January 13, 1995.

Can you imagine looking inside an ancient dinosaur egg? Scientists with the Gobi Desert project can do just that. They found an egg with a dinosaur embryo (EHM-bree-oh) inside. That's a baby dinosaur that never hatched. Scientists have found hundreds of dino eggs, but this one is special. Part of the shell was worn away by weather, so scientists can look inside!

Scientist Mark Norell found the egg near some other eggs. He said the embryo is a meat-eater called an oviraptor (oh-vih-RAP-tor). This is the first time scientists have gotten a good look at a baby meat eater.

The egg gives some exciting new clues about oviraptors. In 1923, the first oviraptor fossil was found. It was near some eggs, so scientists thought the dino had been eating the eggs of another dinosaur. They named the creature oviraptor, or "egg thief."

Now, scientists say that might have been wrong. The egg found in the Gobi Desert looks just like the eggs found in 1923. That means the oviraptor was not eating the eggs of another dinosaur, but was taking care of its own eggs. Now, scientists are trying to figure out if the oviraptor really ate dino eggs at all!

Digging Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs didn't just walk the Earth long ago -- they lived underground too! That's what scientists learned when they discovered the first species of a burrowing dinosaur. The discovery will go on display this summer at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies.

Meet Dinosaur Expert Sue Hendrickson
Paleontologist and marine archaeologist Sue Hendrickson discovered the world's largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex in 1990.

Dinosaur
Provides detailed information on dinosaur history and classification.

LESSON PLAN	Dinosaur Skeletons Students learn about dinosaur bones by constructing models out of tongue depressors and tooth picks.
UNIT PLAN	Clifford Learns About Dinosaurs and So Do We! (This is also the caption on my bulletin board) Introduce your class to a comprehensive view of dinosaurs, including what they ate and how they lived, with this lesson unit incorporating science...