Dinosaurs had soft side – their eggs

THE first dinosaur eggs were soft and leathery like those of turtles rather than hard like those of birds, research has found.

It was previously assumed that dinosaur eggs were tough, since modern reptiles such as crocodiles lay eggs with hard shells.

But research by the American Museum of Natural History and Yale University – and published in Nature – undertook microscopic analysis of the structure of eggs. Residues of the eggshell membrane suggested they were leathery and soft.

Lead author Mark Norell said: ‘We’ve found thousands of skeletal remains of ceratopsian dinosaurs [the bigger creatures like triceratops], but almost none of their eggs. So why weren’t their eggs preserved? My guess – and what we ended up proving through this study – is that they were soft-shelled.’