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But now, we have a pterosaur egg extravaganza. According to the new research, a site in China’s Turpan-Hami Basin in Xinjiang has coughed up 215 beautiful, pliable and miraculously three-dimensional eggs – 16 of which contain embryonic remains. The researchers also suspect there could be as many as 300 more eggs within the same sandstone block. No wonder Xiaolin Wang, the study’s lead author and a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the discovery could be described as a sort of “pterosaur Eden.”

Aside from breaking records, Unwin said there are practical reasons for why having more eggs is better. “When you have a really unique find, you basically can’t do anything to it because that’s all you’ve got.” But now that we have literally hundreds of eggs to work with, we have more options – such as cutting different eggs into cross-sections to study growth rates.

What’s more, the egg treasure trove also boasts skeletons from what appear to be hatchlings, juveniles and adults. This, too, is an embarrassment of riches because it means scientists now have more information about how pterosaurs progressed from egg to adult than ever before.

“This is by far the most exciting discovery that I know of,” said Alexander Kellner, co-author of the new study and paleontologist at the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

And Kellner isn’t some newbie to pterosaur discoveries. He’s been studying these ancient animals for more than 30 years and has personally been a part of naming or describing more than 20 species. This includes the species in question, Hamipterus tianshanensis, which Kellner, Wang and a team of their colleagues discovered in 2014.