How are the world famous dinosaur eggs? I look every day

The Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel has known for sure since this week: dinosaur remains in the world-famous dinosaur egg. There is an opportunity for a second copy. This is evidenced by photographs taken using a special TU Delft CT scanner. Meanwhile, people from abroad come to Boxtel to see the famous egg.

“It’s like we had a baby,” says Jonathan Wallard. After the hectic pace of January, peace is now back. Just like with new parents.” Colleague Martin De Rijk has been smiling for months.

“There is no monitoring.”

This joy begins on Wednesday, January 11, before half past five at the Jeroen Bosch Hospital. Then there are a total of 33 eggs ready to be scanned that evening. Martin de Rijke places the second dinosaur egg in the collection into the CT scanner.

The chance of them finding an embryo in an egg that is about 75 million years old is equivalent to winning the state lottery. There is disbelief when, during an examination, bones are suddenly discovered.

Omroep Brabant was there when the discovery was made. You can see how it happened in this video.

There are a lot of dinosaur eggs, but one egg with dinosaur remains can be counted on two hands all over the world. One of them has been on display at Boxtel for a few months now. “There’s no safety, but the eyes are actually on him all day,” says Jonathan. “It is located opposite the laboratory. Every day I check if it is still in good condition.”

And if you now think that an egg is worth millions of euros, alas: “Scientifically the value is high, but not financially”.

“The scanner went to the highest setting, and the lights stopped blinking.”

The investigation into the contents of the rare egg has not stopped since a hospital examination in January. The curators of the Oertijdmuseum were invited last week to test the egg using a new micro-CT scan from TU/Delft. The device in Delft can look at eggs better than a normal hospital scanner.

“The Delft scanner went to the highest setting, and the LEDs stopped blinking,” says Jonathan. “The pictures showed that there are indeed bones in the egg. Next week we will analyze all the files.”

After that, Martin hopes to be able to determine the type of dinosaur in the egg within a few weeks. “With the files that will come later, we can filter out the layers and just see the bones. Then we get a 3D model of what’s inside.” Martin gets really excited when he says this.

“Science takes time, and science moves slowly.”

“We will use the results from Delft to apply to researchers in Grenoble,” says Jonathan. “With a particle accelerator, we can examine the bone cells. Then you see more details, like the growth rings of bone.”

Before the egg is in the particle accelerator, it can go through a year later. “Science takes time, and science moves slowly.”