Giant dinosaur roamed Busan 100 million years ago — oviraptorid eggs confirmed

Dinosaur egg fossils discovered along Dudong Peninsula in Dadaepo, Saha-gu, Busan, have been confirmed as eggs laid by a large oviraptorid dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period approximately 100 million years ago.

Dr. Choi Seung of the Institute for Basic Science and Baek In-sung, an emeritus professor of environmental geosciences at Pukyong National University, conducted detailed structural analyses on multiple dinosaur egg fossils unearthed from the Cretaceous sedimentary layers of Dudong Peninsula between 2021 and last year. The results confirmed the eggs belonged to a large oviraptorid standing 5 to 6 meters tall.

Oviraptorids were theropod dinosaurs that lived during the late Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). They walked on two legs and were distinguished by beak-shaped jaws and feathers.

The eggs analyzed by the research team matched oviraptorid fossil eggs previously found in China's Henan and Zhejiang provinces, Mongolia, and the US states of Utah and Idaho.

The findings are significant as they mark the first confirmed evidence that large dinosaurs lived in the Busan area. Until now, dinosaur egg fossils in South Korea had been reported only in Aphaedo in Sinan-gun, South Jeolla Province, and in Goseong-gun, South Gyeongsang Province.

"This is the first time fossil egg research supporting the presence of large oviraptorid dinosaurs in Busan has been published," Dr. Choi said. "The Dadaepo sedimentary layer is an important record showing the environment where large dinosaurs actually lived, and it is especially significant as the easternmost confirmed case in Asia."

The research was published last month in Papers in Palaeontology, an international journal of the Palaeontological Association of the United Kingdom.