40 fossilized dinosaur eggs from 60 million years ago discovered in Chechnya

Eggs-traordinary: 40 gigantic dinosaur eggs dating back 60million years found in Chechnya - but what laid them is a mystery
The eggs are between 25cm and a metre in height

By TED THORNHILL
Daily Mail
April 17, 2012

Geologists in Russia's volatile Chechnya region have discovered what they believe to be fossilised dinosaur eggs laid by one of the huge extinct reptiles that roamed the Earth more than 60million years ago.

'We've found about 40 eggs so far, the exact number has not been established,’ said Said-Emin Dzhabrailov, a geologist at the Chechen State University.
‘There could be many more lying under the ground.’

The egg-shaped protrusions on a rock face in southern part of Chechnya. Photo credit: Daily Mail, AFP/Getty 

The find was uncovered when a construction crew was blasting through a hillside to build a road near the region's border with former Soviet Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains.

A team of geologists stumbled across the smooth, oval rock-like forms, which range from 25cm to one metre coincidentally on a recent trip to the area, said Dzhabrailov.
He said palaeontologists were needed to determine which species of dinosaur had laid them.

Eggs-traordinary: A man looks at one of the dinosaur eggs, which number around 40 so far. Photo credit: Daily Mail/Reuters

Dzhabrailov said that the regional Chechen government, which is eager to shed the region's reputation for violence, is considering turning the area into a nature preserve and seeking to attract tourists.

Federal forces fought two separatist wars between 1994 and 2001 in Chechnya, and an Islamist insurgency persists in the mostly Muslim region and surrounding provinces of Russia's North Caucasus.

However, violence has declined under the strong-arm rule of Ramzan Kadyrov, whose multi-million dollar construction projects are aimed at raising the region's profile and boosting the tourism potential of the troubled area.

The dinosaur eggs were found by a construction crew blasting rocks to make way for a new road. Photo credit: Daily Mail