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The most rare of all dinosaurs eggs are from
the top predators on the food chain. Since first described in 1995 by Li, Yin,
and Liu this egg type was often conjectured to having been laid by
Tyrannosaurus. The dinosaur species was originally described as Tyrannosaurus
bataar by Maleev in 1955. In 1965 Rozhdestvensky placed it in Tarbosaurus. Later
still, Paul (1988) put it back into Tyrannosaurus, which was accepted by most,
but not all. Hence the intermingling of the two names when discussing that
dinosaur genus. These eggs were associated with Tarbosaurus / Tyrannosaurus
solely because of their large size, shape, rarity, formation found, and the lack
of another similar size/type dinosaur known in the same time / location as the
eggs. Yet, there was no hard evidence to back up the conjecture because of a
lack of preserved late-stage embryonic bones within this egg type. Plus, the
great similarity with the much smaller oviraptor eggs made scholars hesitant to
push the claim. Indeed, dinosaur egg expert Dr. Darla Zelenitsky had already
asserted that this egg type is from an as-yet undiscovered type of giant
oviraptor.
Then everything changed in mid 2007 with the announcement of “A Gigantic
Bird-like Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China” just as Dr. Zelenitsky had
predicted. Information on this new find was published in the June 14, 2007
edition (Volume 447) of Nature. The paper describes the fossil remains of a huge
dinosaur found in northern China that was as tall as the formidable Tyrannosaur.
It would have been about 26 feet long, 16 feet tall, and weighed 3,000 pounds --
and was christened Gigantoraptor erlianensis.
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(Click Photo to Enlarge)
Name: Gigantoraptor erlianensis
Geologic Age: Middle to Late Cretaceous
Location: Yangcheng County, Shanxi Provence, Xixia, China (on the border with Inner Mongolia)
Comments: This is an ultra rare pair of gigantoraptor dinosaur eggs! This specimen was 100% prepped here in the United States. This is NOT a composite egg with a patchwork of shell fragments glued to a rock... again.. this is 100% original! There ARE fake eggs out there that are nicely inflated.. perfectly shaped.. and most of them are nothing more than a lump of "matrix" that is mounded and shaped, then pieces of shell are glued onto it.. This is NOT a fake.. NOT a composite.. NOT a fantasy piece.. this is a genuine pair of eggs that are as found, with only the matrix removed.. Each egg measures approx. 16.5" - 17" long... During the prep process a few pieces of the shell flaked off and exposed embryonic remains!! My understanding is, that when the eggs still contained embryonic material, the shell directly over that material did not adhere well once the fossilization had completed.. and it tends to flake off when prepped.. the preparator contacted me and sent photos.. and asked if I wanted her to continue taking shell off. After much thought, I decided to leave the rest of the eggs alone.. and if the buyer wants to try and expose more, that would be up to them. The embroyonic material presents as pinkish/white when exposed.. it is evident in a couple of areas on the one egg.. and a small exposed crack on the other egg. This clutch of eggs is unlike others that I have seen.. the shell on these eggs is a reddish/brown color instead of the black shell seen in other Giganto eggs.. perhaps it was just the location where found... but it looks very nice in person. This is a heavy nest.. the matrix was not trimmed down since we didn't want to risk breaking the eggs in the process.. bits of shell can be seen inside the edges of the block of matrix. The overall size of this specimen is approx. 20" x 15" x 7". I'm positive that you won't find another Gigantoraptor Egg Nest with Embryonic material ANYWHERE!!
GigantoRaptor Egg 1 Price $10,000.00