Lot 651
Fossilized Skin Of A Sauropod Dinosaur Embryo. Found in Auca Manuevo, Argentina (Patagonia) in 1997, a few of the crushed eggs of one of the last types of Sauropod dinosaurs, known as Titanosaurs, contained the first fossils of embryonic dinosaur skin. The 5 to 6 in. round eggs were buried in a flood 80 million years ago and flattened by compaction. In just a few of the eggs recovered, some embryonic bones and skin were found on the lower part of the crushed eggs. This remarkable 3 x 2½ in. egg fragment contains a few pieces of bone and a ½ in. section of rare dino embryonic skin attached to a bone fragment. This skin fossil is not an impression left by the skin in the surrounding mud, but is an actual 3-D replication of the skin itself. The tiny scales do not overlap as do the scales in reptiles, but are arranged in a rosette pattern in which 8 smaller scales surround a larger center scale. The area of dino skin is identified by a white tag on this specimen which has much brown eggshell on the bottom side with its ornamented pattern and broken pieces of eggshell in the interior, along with the skin and bone fragments.
Only a few dozen eggs contained embryonic skin, and most of these are in museums. The Auca Manuevo site, made famous by the Discovery Channel's Dinosaur World, has been declared a fossil preserve, and no more specimens will be available.
Estimated Value $750 - 1,500.
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