The fossilized egg – measuring 8 by 11 inches (29 by 20 cm) – is only slightly smaller than eggs of Madagascar’s giant flightless elephant birds that went extinct only in the past several centuries, scientists said on Wednesday. “This new egg is the very first fossil egg from Antarctica, and the largest soft-shelled egg ever discovered,” said University of Texas paleontologist Lucas Legendre, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature. The only creatures in Antarctica at that time large enough to lay such an egg were seagoing reptiles: the marine lizards called mosasaurs and the long-necked plesiosaurs.
