Bird-like dinosaur fossil found with eggs

UPPSALA, Sweden, April 10 (UPI) -- Fossilized bones and unique eggs of an enigmatic 70-million-year-old birdlike dinosaur have been discovered in Patagonia in South America, paleontologists said.

An Argentine-Swedish research team said the fossil find included two eggs preserved near articulated bones of the hind limb of the skeletal remains of an alvarezsaurid dinosaur.

The Alvarezsauridae are one of the most mysterious groups of dinosaurs, the researchers said, and the new fossil find, dubbed Bonapartenykus ultimus, is one of the largest members of the family at more than 8 feet tall.

The two eggs found together with the bones might have been inside the oviducts of the Bonapartenykus female when the animal perished, a release from Sweden's Uppsala University said Tuesday.

Alvarezsaurids were small bipedal feathered dinosaurs living in Asia and North and South America with a bird-like skull featuring tiny teeth-carrying jaws.

They had small forearms sporting an enormous claw, the researchers said.