Anything about dinosaur eggs !!!

[amargasaurus cazaui]

My curiosity on this topic of course is constantly in high gear with the substantial investment I have placed in four egg specimens, two at least of which are considered some form of maniraptor. I will read the paper later this evening and thanks for sharing it. I know you can dump out a box of what they consider oviraptor egg shell on a counter and as you lay it out and sort through it all looks alike at a first glance, but the ornamentational patterns are often so vastly different you can find several different kinds. This has always made me wonder if many oviraptor eggs are actually velociraptor or citipatti eggs might be as well. ......given the huge size of citipatti eggs in particular. I have posted alot of images for everyone to view the various eggs alone and in nest settings so perhaps others might have some thoughts as well. Thanks for sharing gwangi

[amargasaurus cazaui]

So how cool is this? I was provided a method to contact Dr. Ken Carpenter, by a fellow member, and chose to email him a few succint questions and ask his thoughts regarding my dinosaur eggs. As most know , he is an established expert on dinosaur eggs, babies and nests with a book published by the same title. I simply sent him the pictures and asked for any thoughts, ideas, identifications or anything that came to mind, as I did not wish to make my email wordy, or in any manner bothersome.

His responses were quite useful in that first he seemed to validate all four eggs as legitimate dinosaur egg specimens. His other comments surprised me and left me with alot to consider. He established that he felt the Hadrosaur egg, was indeed sphereolithus, and correct. Yay !! He also felt the sauropod egg, was indeed Megaloolithus and correctly established as well. The two elongated eggs that I own, which I have maintained were oviraptor and citipatti, he felt were problematic in that many dinosaur genera share this type and shape of egg. I believe reading between the lines, this means they could be velociraptor, troodon, oreodromeosaur, or any other medium to small size theropod, and do not necessarily belong to maniraptor as my original seller maintained. My next stop will be reading Mr. Carpenter's book thoroughly again especially as regards the latter two eggs and their ornamentational patterns in hopes of more concise identification. Still alot of confirmation there, and it would indeed be neat to learn I have an actual troodon egg !!!

[DinoLord]

Very cool stuff. Let us know if you're able to pin down anything more specific. Identifying miscallaneous fossils is a fun yet tricky exercise  - I had a similar experience when trying to identify all the assorted polished Madagascan ammonites in my collection.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Dinosaur eggs are tricky to deal with as they all have their own names, independent of what dinosaur they may belong to....until you find an embryonic within a given shell type, you cannot identify it for certain, so to avoid tenous ties to various species that might not prove correct, they are all named seperately of the dinosaur they might derive from. Given this, I had felt there was enough established evidence to link my two eggs to maniraptor, however for whatever reason, Dr. Carpenter stated the type is problematic, as there are many genera with this type of egg.....I can only surmise that other raptor species, and even other theropods would share egg styles and could  be confused......which does make the entire thing more exciting.

[Arul]

Wow you collect it ? Awesome 

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Arul, I would say more correctly that I used to collect eggs. The chance and open window for acquiring them easily has somewhat closed, and now I find myself more focused at collecting dinosaur eggshell, than eggs. For a few brief moments there was a way to purchase specimens from China....however in 2009 that window closed and I have been unable to acquire any further eggs since. I still maintain the four I did get and a ever growing collection of dinosaur eggshell from everywhere in the world.

[Arul]

Wow that is great  btw what is the nearest place from indonesia to get dinosaur eggshell/egg ? Hehehe

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Wow that is great  btw what is the nearest place from indonesia to get dinosaur eggshell/egg ? Hehehe

A correct response to your questions in full Arul....first, it has become more difficult with each passing week to acquire any dinosaur egg specimen. The most common eggs availible are of course from the Xixia basin of China and the Guamdong district. During the heyday of egg importation from China you could purchase....oviraptor, citipatti, gigantaraptor, hadrosaur, sauropod, and segnosaur eggs routinely.
   A baseline idea of costs then and now is useful understanding the market. When things were going full steam you could acquire a fairly nice Hadrosaur egg for 150-300 dollars. Nowdays the ones availible run around 5-6 hundred and you often get the low end types that are badly patched or made from a few eggs that have been glued together. Sauropod eggs, were never common even then, and the few that I saw come to market were all unhatched and from the same nest...and cost at least 250 each and as much as 450 apiece. Nowdays even a cast, with little original shell, and perhaps badly compressed brings over 500 and a decent egg of this type over a thousand easily. The eggs that were sold as oviraptors, cost from 2-5 hundred dollars depending on shell coverage, compression and restoration. Nowdays even the worst specimens cost around 5 hundred dollars and a high end piece can bring around 12-15 hundred. Citipatti eggs were expensive to start with...a low end egg would cost over 500, and a nice one over a thousand. Nowdays , they run about 750-1400. Gigantaraptor eggs at one time were selling for give or take 12-18 thousand apiece.........out of my reach.
  Once the US exexcuted a letter of understanding to no longer allow the eggs to be imported here, the supply dried up, at least within the US. I am unsure how the politics might have influenced policies for other countries. In 2009, the 99 year lease that Great Britain had held if Hong Kong lapsed, allowing it to revert to Chinese control. At that point there was a massive crackdown on the exportation of eggs from China, and I believe the trade worldwide was basically stopped.
   This has led people like myself to either pay extreme prices on places like ebay to secure eggs which are already types known and generally of a lower overall quality than before the restrictions occurred. I had the brilliant idea to shift to collecting eggshell instead...and quickly learned a tough lesson.
  For eggshell from China you can generally purchase many chunks and pieces which are all stated as Oviraptor shell...HOWEVER, if you take the time to examine the pieces, you will see a multitude of different ornamentational types , suggesting a large number of different genera of dinosaur species all with similar egg types, just as Dr. Ken Carpenter has said. You can also find hadrosaur and sauropod eggshell from this locale.
  If you look worldwide for types of dinosaur eggshell to collect it starts to sink in, there is little out there to get, and most of it is the same locations and kinds, that everyone else already has. A fairly complete list would be the types offered from China, Hypeselosaurus from France, Saltasaurus from South America, and odds and ends that surface from the cretaceous formations in North America, rarely. To date I have purchased a small section of an egg, species unknown, likely Hadrosaur, from Utah. In addition I also have acquired various types from the Hell Creek formation, mostly appearing to be hadrosaur, oreodromeus, or unknown types. In short, acquiring shell, is cheaper overall, but just as difficult as getting whole eggs.

[Arul]

Ohh okay i see thanks for the explanation now i understand even in a little bit i need google translate to translate that hihihi 

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Exciting new addition to this collection...I have a spotter that deals alot in fossils and is a geologist as well. He collects egghsells as a hobby and when he finds something unique, or out of the beaten path he generally gets enough to set me up as well. Apparently he stumbled on a person who has some mostly complete egg specimens and shell from China attributed to Orodromeus. Without an embryonic to establish for certain, and only comparing them to the eggs Horner published on, he felt they matched fairly closely, but the identification is tenous enough that another small theropod or perhaps troodon could be possible.Of note for this type of shell...very thin compared to other types. Suggestive of a smaller egg perhaps.



There is alot of random theropod eggshell that comes to market from China, mostly marked as oviraptor. As I learned from Ken Carpenter, that identification is likely very shaky given the number of possible types of dinosaur who laid similar eggs.

[Parasaurolophus]

Hey guys! New to the forum. Just had a quick question: is there anywhere online with a good egg database? As in, if I had a few eggs I was trying to identify by region and time period, is there anywhere with a checklist of sorts?


Specifically circular/round eggs 3-4 inches in diameter from the coastal areas (eastern coastline) of the shallow North American sea during the cretaceous. Thanks guys!

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Hey guys! New to the forum. Just had a quick question: is there anywhere online with a good egg database? As in, if I had a few eggs I was trying to identify by region and time period, is there anywhere with a checklist of sorts?


Specifically circular/round eggs 3-4 inches in diameter from the coastal areas (eastern coastline) of the shallow North American sea during the cretaceous. Thanks guys!

A few pictures would go a long ways....but there are some fossil sites that might be useful for egg identification to a minor degree. It is somewhat impossible to identify eggs, in a given area, unless eggs of a similar type from that same area and time have been found with embryonic remains within.The best you can hope for if such thing does not exist, is for an egg to closely match eggs from another area that do have remains, giving suggestive evidence to its type.Another possibility is that you may have turtle or snake eggs, although at the size you mention its dubious.A picture would be useful to help however.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Given the interest shown in the recent announcement by Rebor that they will be producing and marketing various small versions of egg nests for dinosaurs, it surprises me to some degree that various of our independent sculpters in the forum are not rising to the occassion as well. I know that I think it was Manuel that had a model already on Shapeways for a nest, which I purchased and had Martin paint, however a few different types could not be a bad thing for the diorama makers and what not.

      Of particular interest to me would be if someone sculpted a lifesized theropod type egg, that could be printed via Shapeways.....essentially it could be almost entirely hollow, saving a good amount on costs. Would be a good seller I think.......well done dinosaur egg replicas are seldom offered and EXPENSIVE as you can imagine....just a thought for the sculpters. If anyone is tempted, I can attain or offer close up detailed shots and input for any of the four egg types I own at least....

[tyrantqueen]

This might not be very interesting to most people but I'm in the middle of sculpting a dinosaur nest for some dioramas.





I made these using super sculpey. I got the "pitted" surface by rolling them on 200 grit sandpaper. They are about a centimetre in length.

I'm working on the nest next.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Shape and ornamentation are nearly perfect, and better than most attempts ive seen. The only nitpick I could possible see is the eggs are not quite an elongate oval as you have them but are somehow a bit wider at one end than the other. I have posted pictures where you can see this previously, but it is slightly out of oval to be sure, with one end a bit wider.

[tyrantqueen]

Shape and ornamentation are nearly perfect, and better than most attempts ive seen. The only nitpick I could possible see is the eggs are not quite an elongate oval as you have them but are somehow a bit wider at one end than the other. I have posted pictures where you can see this previously, but it is slightly out of oval to be sure, with one end a bit wider.

Thanks for the crit. It is very tricky to get them uniform in shape, but I'll go back and try again

[amargasaurus cazaui]

The only thing I can say here is the more sizeable the egg, the more pronounced the wide end seems...ie the larger 7 1/4 incher I have that was identified tenatively as Citipatti, is quite obviously larger at one end...whereas the egg that I have that was stated as Oviraptor, at 6 3/4 inches long, is not quite as obviously widened......although still noticeable. I believe that the larger the animal inside, the larger the wider end tended to be..from what I can see. So if you are leaning towards a smaller theropod...less pronounced, whereas a larger species might be even more noticeable.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

In light of recent discussion about egg nests produced by one of the companies , and wether they are accurate or not.....I had offered some thoughts regarding sauropod nests in particular, and how the nests did not resemble known sauropod nesting habbits. This is a pretty helpful article as regards at least titanosauruids nesting habbits.Interesting read.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/21/giant-dinosaurs-nested-like-enormous-turkeys/#.Vi4VQbJj7Lc.twitter

[amargasaurus cazaui]

A nice birthday present from mother, chosen at my current show this weekend.....A flattened and likely partial or even hatched Saltasaurus egg from South America......I was surprised to find this one available at a fairly reasonable price.

[Megalosaurus]

A nice birthday present from mother, chosen at my current show this weekend.....A flattened and likely partial or even hatched Saltasaurus egg from South America......I was surprised to find this one available at a fairly reasonable price.

Interesting. You should examine it to know if there're embrio bones inside.