Plenty of us were obsessed with dinosaurs when we were kids, but imagine being this 10-year-old boy from China.
Zhang Yangzhe happened to have stumbled upon a nest of fossilised dinosaur eggs while he was searching for a tool to crack open some walnuts.
Apparently, he saw a “strange stone” in the ground when he played by the Dong River in Heyuan, Guangdong Province. He noticed how the stone had “circles” on the surface, and showed them to his mother.
According to Lad Bible, the boy initially thought the peculiar circles on the stone were cement, but then realised the surface looked like exactly like the pattern of a dinosaur eggshell.
FYI, Zhang is really interested in science and dinosaurs. He had seen fossilised dinosaur eggs in the museum previously which explains his familiarity with them.
“I have learned this knowledge in books and in the cultural corridor of my school. I have seen it in museums. Different dinosaur eggs have different shapes.”
His mother, Li, decided to call the authorities to examine the site. Experts from Heyuan Dinosaur Museum confirmed that the “stone” was indeed a nest of ELEVEN dinosaur eggs and promptly excavated the site. The eggs were about 9cm in length.
After excavating and investigating, it’s been confirmed that the dinosaur eggs came from the Cretaceous period (right before dinosaurs went extinct). This means the nest of eggs were 66 MILLION years old.
It’s said that Heyuan is China’s “home of dinosaurs” because a total of 43 fossilised eggs had been found in that city alone!
Heyuan Dinosaur Museum claimed that they have more than 10,000 eggs, a.k.a the most extensive collection of dino eggs in the world. Wow, we’re super tempted to pay a visit to that museum rn.
This must’ve been an unforgettable experience for Zhang, just imagine how thrilled he was to have found the eggs first-hand!
Also read: Watch 18 LIFE-SIZE Dinosaurs Come to Life in KL This August 2019!