People visit the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum in August.

Fossils seen as encrypted symbols waiting for decoding

It took nearly three years for workers at a dinosaur museum in Heyuan, Guangdong province to restore a nest of 11 dinosaur eggs unearthed near a local bridge.

"Every piece of information about the dinosaur eggs is well recorded, waiting for future uncovering," said Huang Zhiqing, deputy director of the collection and research department at the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum.

The nest of eggs is just a small part of their kind in the museum. There are nearly 20,000 dinosaur egg fossils on display at the museum since the first dinosaur egg fossil was dug up in Heyuan in 1996.

In November 2004, the museum won the Guinness World Record for keeping 10,008 dinosaur eggs, the largest number in a collection around the world.

"Repairing a nest of dinosaur eggs, including fine carving and polishing, usually involves a group of workers taking several months to three years to complete the process," said Huang, who has been engaged in field investigation and fossil restoration research for 25 years.

The nest of eleven fossil eggs was discovered by primary student Zhang Yangzhe, who was playing with his mother near a broken bridge spanning the Dongjiang River on July 23, 2019. Parts of the bridge had been washed away by a flood.