Oviraptorosaurian Eggs (Dinosauria) with Embryonic Skeletons Discovered for the First Time in China

Two elongatoolithid dinosaur eggs from the Upper Cretaceous of Ganzhou,Jiangxi Province and the embryonic skeletons they bear are described.They represent the first oviraptorosaurian eggs with embryonic skeletons in China and provide the first example that an oospecies can be correlated to certain dinosaur taxon/taxa.The two eggs are the same as the pair of the eggs inside a female oviraptorosaurian pelvis from the same horizon of the same area in both macro-and micro-structures of the egg shells,and can be referred to the oospecies,Macroolithus yaotunensis Zhao,1975.The morphology of the preserved part of the embryonic skeletons indicates that they may have been laid by an oviraptorid,Heyuannia huangi from Guangdong Province or a closely related oviraptorosaurian, which may have been lived in the Ganzhou area too in the Late Cretaceous.The embryonic skeletons of the two eggs are not in the same developing stage.In one of the eggs,the postzygapophysis of the preserved vertebrae are well ossified,indicating that it was just hatched.