43 dinosaur eggs discovered at construction site in China

Forty-three dinosaur egg fossils were excavated in Heyuan, China, on Monday afternoon. Video by CCTV.

The city of Heyuan in the Guandong province of China is considered the “Home of Dinosaurs.” Since 1996, nearly 17,000 dinosaur eggs have been discovered beneath the city’s mountain terrain. On Sunday, that number grew when construction workers unearthed, by happenstance, 43 fossilized dinosaur eggs.

It’s too soon to tell which species of dinosaur these eggs belong to. The largest was 5 inches in diameter, and 19 were fully intact. According to The Verge, previously found eggs were 65 to 89 million years old.

The Heyuan Museum holds the city’s collection of dinosaur eggs, 11 fossilized skeletons and almost 200 footprint fossils. But museum deputy director Huang Zhiqing told CNN that this was the first time fossils were unearthed in the city center.