In a remote field in northeast China, paleontologists recently hit pay dirt--dinosaur fossils unlike any seen before. Among the finds, revealed last week: an unlaid egg inside a female sinosauropteryx (sy-no-sawr-op-tir-ix) and proof that dinosaurs ate mammals. The sharp-toothed jawbone of a small mammal was found inside a birdlike sinosauropteryx.
Scientists suspect that a natural disaster, perhaps a huge volcanic eruption, buried the area 120 million to 140 million years ago, preserving the dinosaurs that lived there.
Experts studying the site were amazed to find that claws, scales and even skin of the extinct species remained. "Nowhere else in the world are fossils from such a critical time so well preserved," said paleontologist John H. Ostrom. He was the discoverer, in 1964, of velociraptors, the fierce dinosaurs portrayed in the movie Jurassic Park.