A well-preserved fossilised dinosaur embryo, still inside its egg, is providing palaeontologists with new insights into the evolutionary links between modern birds and dinosaurs.

The 72 to 66-million-year-old oviraptosaur embryo, found in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, in southern China, reveals that the creatures took on a distinctive tucking posture before they hatched.

Analysis of the fossil, named “Baby Yingliang”, after the name of the Chinese company which bought the egg around 20 years ago, showed the embryo’s head is lying below its body, with its feet on either side and its back curled along the blunt end of the egg.

The researchers said this behaviour had previously been considered unique to birds.

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It raises the possibility that this tucking position before hatching may have evolved first among non-avian theropods during the Cretaceous period.

The research team from institutions in China, the UK and Canada said it was among the most complete dinosaur embryo ever found.

Read more: The Independent