1) A newly discovered 70 million year old egg from the Late Cretaceous period prompted researchers to analyze and compare its shape to dinosaur and bird eggs. 2) They found the egg, called Sankofa, had a shape that was between the teardrop shape of dinosaur eggs and the more oval shape of bird eggs. 3) While Easter eggs are typically similar in shape to modern bird eggs, some resemble the shape of the ancient Sankofa dinosaur egg, raising questions about the origins of this tradition.

1. ... a dinosaur?
By: Aimee Bachelder

2. Where do Easter eggs come from?
This may be a simple question, but any
parent trying to provide an answer
this Easter might struggle to come up
with a satisfactory response," Mark
Purnell, a researcher at the
University of Leicester, said in a
statement. "According to many, the
eggs are delivered by the Easter
Bunny, but that doesn't really

3. 70 million year old egg?
The research started as an analysis of a
newly discovered 70-million-year-old
egg, one that would've been laid by a
mother dinosaur during the Late
Cretaceous when Tyrannosaurus rex
walked the earth.
To figure out if the egg belonged to an
ancient bird or its dinosaur relatives, the
team compared the shapes of eggs from

4. Dinosaur Eggs vs. Birds Eggs vs. Easter Eggs?
The pale gray eggs are from
birds, and the darker gray
eggs are from dinosaurs. Most
Easter eggs, as shown on the
right, are similar in shape to
bird's eggs, but some are
closer to the eggs of
dinosaurs. The Easter egg on
the left is particularly close to
the newly described Sankofa
dinosaur egg.

5. Conclusions
They found the new Sankofa egg
fell somewhere between dinosaur
eggs and bird eggs. It's oval-
shaped than teardrop-shaped.
There are no other eggs like it, the
researchers said.

6. Sources
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46986168/ns/technolo
gy_and_science-science/