Antarctica's 'deflated football' fossil is world's second-biggest egg


  • World
  • Wednesday, 17 Jun 2020

General view of a glacier during an expedition on Seymour Island in Antarctica, in this picture taken in 2011 and obtained by Reuters on June 16, 2020. Mandatory credit Rodrigo Otero/University Of Chile/Handout via REUTERS.

(Reuters) - A mysterious 68-million-year-old fossil found on Seymour Island off Antarctica's coast that looked like a deflated football has turned out to be a unique find - the second-largest egg on record and one that may have belonged to a huge marine reptile that lived alongside the dinosaurs.

The fossilized egg - measuring 8 by 11 inches (29 by 20 cm) - is only slightly smaller than eggs of Madagascar's giant flightless elephant birds that went extinct only in the past several centuries, scientists said on Wednesday.

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