The fossil — nicknamed “The Thing” — alludes to a puzzling egg‑shaped protest found in 2011 on Seymour Island, Antarctica, by a group of Chilean researchers.
ScienceDaily
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Wikipedia
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For about a decade, the fossil remained unstudied and unlabeled in the collections at Chile’s National Exhibition hall of Characteristic History. Researchers weren’t beyond any doubt what it was — it didn’t see like bone, shell, or any recognizable fossil.
WHRO Open Media
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UPI
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In 2020, a investigate group driven by Lucas Legendre (with colleagues counting Julia Clarke) at The College of Texas at Austin re‑examined the fossil and distributed a formal investigation. Their conclusion: “The Thing” is not a shake or bone — it is a monster, soft-shelled egg laid by an old marine reptile.
UT Austin News
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Futurity
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The egg was allotted a formal title: Antarcticoolithus brady.
Wikipedia
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What’s abnormal — and record‑setting — around it
Size: The fossil egg measures generally 29 × 20 cm (almost 11 by 7–8 inches).
Paleontology World
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The Climate Channel
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In terms of known fossil eggs, it positions as the biggest soft‑shelled egg ever found.
PubMed
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UT Austin News
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Futurity
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It is too the second-largest egg of any species we know of in Earth’s history — as it were surpassed by the eggs of the terminated mammoth winged creature from Madagascar, the Elephant Feathered creature.
IFLScience
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Dawn
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The shell structure is not at all like the difficult, calcified eggs ordinary of most dinosaurs or cutting edge feathered creatures: instep, it is lean, adaptable, and parchment-like, more associated to eggs laid by numerous advanced snakes and reptiles. Its layers are collapsed and collapsed, clearly protected beneath silt for millions of a long time.
PubMed
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Futurity
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The fossil is from the Late Cretaceous period — generally 66 to 68 million a long time back.
Phys.org
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PubMed
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What laid the egg — and why it changes assumptions
The analysts propose that the egg was laid by a expansive marine reptile, conceivably a mammoth ocean reptile — a part of the gather that incorporates Mosasaurs.
Futurity
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Paleontology World
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Based on comparisons between egg estimate and grown-up body estimate over 259 living reptile species, the animal that laid this egg is evaluated to have measured at slightest 6–7 meters (≈ 20–23 feet) long, barring tail — steady with known mosasaur measurements.
Paleontology World
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PubMed
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This is imperative since earlier to this revelation, numerous paleontologists expected that mammoth marine reptiles like mosasaurs gave live birth (viviparity), or maybe than laying eggs — particularly due to biomechanical challenges of a overwhelming, water-dwelling reptile pulling itself onto arrive to lay eggs.
The Climate Channel
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Futurity
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The soft‑shelled, parchment-like quality recommends the eggs might have been laid straightforwardly in the water — maybe on the ocean floor, in shallow coastal tidal ponds or ensured bays — at that point brought forth nearly instantly ("hatching‑as‑they‑are‑laid"), a regenerative procedure seen nowadays in a few ocean snakes.
National Geographic
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Futurity
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The Climate Channel
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In impact, this challenges a long-held suspicion: that huge marine reptiles fundamentally required hard-shelled eggs or live birth. Soft‑shelled propagation may have been more far reaching among old, huge reptiles than already accepted.
PubMed
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Suggestions for Paleontology & Our Understanding of Reptile Evolution
The disclosure of Antarcticoolithus brady strengths a reexamining of how ancient marine environments may have worked. Key implications:
Reproductive differences: The discover underscores more prominent regenerative differences among antiquated reptiles than expected. Soft‑shelled eggs may have been common, indeed among gigantic marine creatures, meaning our fossil record may be one-sided — since delicate shells break down more effectively than difficult ones, they seldom fossilize.
PubMed
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Nursery territories: The silt layer facilitating “The Thing” too contains skeletal remains of adolescent reptiles (mosasaurs and plesiosaurs), proposing that the region close Seymour Island may have served as a nursery — secured shallow waters where youthful reptiles brought forth and developed securely.
Paleontology World
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Egg‑shell advancement: The discover challenges the suspicion that calcified, hard-shelled eggs are the hereditary condition for expansive reptiles. Instep, delicate eggs may have been genealogical — and difficult shells may have advanced different times freely in assorted heredities (e.g., dinosaurs, feathered creatures, crocodilians).
National Geographic
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PubMed
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Fossil potential in “extreme” locales: That a soft‑shelled egg — sensitive, parchment-like, effectively crushed — might fossilize at all in Antarctica proposes that cold, sediment‑rich marine stores may protect more delicate organic structures than already accepted. This opens modern conceivable outcomes for fossil disclosures, not as it were bones, but delicate tissues, eggs, perhaps indeed skin impressions or soft‑bodied creatures.
National Geographic
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What We Still Don’t Know
Despite the breakthrough, numerous puzzles remain:
The fossil egg is purge — completely brought forth — so there is no embryonic skeleton interior. That implies researchers cannot conclusively affirm which correct species laid the egg. The mosasaur theory is conceivable — but not demonstrated.
ScienceDaily
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Paleontology World
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How precisely did such a huge marine reptile oversee to lay an egg? Did it come aground like ocean turtles do, or did it lay the egg submerged and depend on near‑instantaneous bring forth to maintain a strategic distance from waterlogging? The last mentioned thought is theoretical.
The Climate Channel
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Futurity
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We don’t however know how common such eggs were — whether “The Thing” is a uncommon fluke, or agent of a broader regenerative technique among marine reptiles in the Late Cretaceous. Extra fossil disclosures will be required.
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