A young boy has accidentally found a nest of fossilised dinosaur eggs; how's that for a summer holiday activity, eh?
The 11-year-old boy found what he thought was a 'strange stone' while out near a lake in Heyuan, Guangdong Province in China, but when he gave it a closer look, he thought it might be a dinosaur egg - and it turns out he was right.
In fact, there were 11 eggs in total. Experts have said the three-and-a-half inch (9 cm) eggs are around 66 million years old, belonging to the late Cretaceous period.
The boy Zhang Yangzhe says he was trying to find something that could crack open walnuts when he came across the 'special rock' and, after spotting some circles on it, called over his mum to take a look.
Speaking to the Heyuan Radio and Television Station, the schoolboy said: "I thought it was a cement circle at first. Later, I asked my mum to look at it and thought that the shell was like a dinosaur egg."
Zhang said he recognised the pattern after seeing similar fossilised eggs at the museum."I have learned this knowledge in the books and in the cultural corridor of the school," he explained. "I have seen it in museums. Different dinosaur eggs have different shapes."
His mum Li Xiaofang said her son loves science and has read a bunch of books about dinosaurs, making his discovery even more exciting."The stone is partially exposed," she said. "The shell is below, I think it is similar to the dinosaur egg seen by the museum."
Li decided to call the authorities and stood over the eggs while they waited for them to arrive. Experts from Heyuan Dinosaur Museum confirmed that they were indeed dinosaur eggs and began to excavate them from the site.
The eggs have since been taken to the museum so further tests can be carried out to determine the type of eggs.
