The Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel knows for sure since this week: there are remains of a dinosaur in their world-famous dino egg. And there is a chance of a second copy. This is evident from images taken with a special TU Delft CT scanner. Meanwhile, people from abroad come to Boxtel to see the famous egg.
“It seems as if we have had a child,” says Jonathan Wallaard. “After the hectic pace of January, peace has now returned. Just like with new parents.” Colleague Maarten de Rijke has been smiling for months.
“There’s no surveillance.”
That joy starts on Wednesday, January 11, just before half past five in the Jeroen Bosch Hospital. There are then a total of 33 eggs ready for scanning that evening. Maarten de Rijke places the second dinosaur egg in the collection in the CT scanner.
The chance that they will find an embryo in an egg that is almost 75 million years old is almost as good as winning the State Lottery. There is disbelief when suddenly bones are discovered during the scan.
Omroep Brabant was there when the discovery was made. You can see how that went in this video.
There are plenty of dinosaur eggs, but one with remains of a dinosaur can be counted on two hands worldwide. One of them has been in a display case in Boxtel for a few months now. “There is no security, but actually eyes are on it all day,” says Jonathan. “It is located opposite the lab. I check every day if it is still in good condition.”
And if you now think that the egg is worth millions of euros, unfortunately: “Scientifically, the value is high, but not financially.”
“The scanner went to the highest setting, the lights just stopped blinking.”
The investigation into the contents of the rare egg has not stopped since the hospital scan in January. The two curators of the Oertijdmuseum were invited last week to test the egg with the brand new micro CT scan from TU/Delft. The device in Delft can look into the eggs even better than an average hospital scanner.
“The scanner in Delft went to the highest setting, the lamps just stopped blinking,” says Jonathan. “The images showed that there are indeed bones in the egg. Next week we will get all the files to analyze.”
And then Maarten hopes to be able to say in a few weeks what kind of dinosaur is in the egg. “With the files that will come later, we can filter out layers and only see the bones. We then get a 3D model of what’s inside.” Maarten becomes very enthusiastic when he tells this.
“Science takes time, science moves slowly.”
“We will use the results from Delft to submit a request to researchers in Grenoble,” says Jonathan. “With their particle accelerator, we can look into the cells of the bones. You then see more details, such as the growth rings of the bones.”
Before the egg is in the particle accelerator, it could be a year later. “Science takes time, science moves slowly.”
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