Hiding in plain sight: the unexpected discovery of a historically interesting dinosaur egg in a mineralogy collection

Abstract

In 1883, an agate from central India, donated by Chas. Fraser Esq., was registered in the Mineral Collection of the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, as BM.58644. More recently, it was removed from storage to be exhibited publicly in the NHM’s Membership Rooms, due to its high aesthetic value. However, a serendipitous observation made during an international mineralogy fair led to the discovery that the spherical structure in which the agate had formed was, in fact, a dinosaur egg. The size, shape and other features of the egg suggest that it was laid by a titanosaurid sauropod and was part of a nest. Research into the history of the specimen’s acquisition, combined with an understanding of how the collections of the NHM were built and recorded, suggests that the specimen was collected prior to 1843. This date is significant as this previously unrecognised egg was collected 80 years before the first confirmed discovery of dinosaur eggs and nests in the Gobi of Mongo- lia, and 16 years prior to the first scientific reports of dinosaur eggshell in France (although these were initially misidentified as bird eggshells). Indeed, this discovery likely pre-dated the naming of Dinosauria in 1842. This example highlights the new information that can be gleaned from continual reassessment of historic collections, and the value of combining curatorial, archival and research expertise in unlocking their potential.