The special exhibition “Dinosaur eggs – offspring of the giant lizards” opened at the Dinosaur Museum Altmühltal just in time for Easter 2023. Here, guests young and old are presented with extraordinarily valuable and rare dinosaur eggs and clutches that have never been shown in this combination before.

The most important exhibits in the exhibition are valuable original fossils, including eggs from long-necked dinosaurs, the clutch of a duckbill and several clutches of bird-like predatory dinosaurs. They come from three continents: South America, Asia and Europe. Compared to their size, dinosaurs laid rather small eggs. The eggs of herbivorous long-necked dinosaurs, for example, were no larger than the size of a soccer ball. The shape and surface of fossilized dinosaur eggs also differ from those of their modern-day representatives, the birds. The fossilized clutches offer interesting insights into life millions of years ago, such as nesting behaviour and the evolutionary advantages of different egg shapes.

Museum founder Michael Völker: “This unique exhibition provides fascinating insights into a little-explored area of palaeontology. Many mysteries surrounding the eggs remain unsolved to this day: Why are the eggs relatively small? Was their shell soft or hard? Were there dinosaurs that hatched their eggs? What’s more, dinosaur eggs are very rare.”

One of the particularly interesting facts about the exhibits is that the herbivorous duck-billed dinosaurs laid almost spherical eggs. In comparison, elongated eggs are typical of bird-like predatory dinosaurs. A nest with broken eggshells in the exhibition takes viewers back millions of years: small dinosaurs probably actually hatched here.

The special exhibition is included in the day ticket.