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• Fossil record lacks specimens about turtle eggs containing embryos.
• Researchers provide the first description and taxonomy information of an egg with a preserved fossilized embryonic turtle.
• The fossil was discovered from the Upper Cretaceous Xiaguan Formation of Henan Province in China.
• The specimen is assigned to the Nanhsiungchelyidae which is an extinct group of large terrestrial turtles.
• The egg is one of the largest and thickest shelled turtle eggs from the Mesozoic Era.
• The egg is described as rigid and spherical.
• The new discovery allowed the identification of other Nanhsiungchelyid egg clutches and comparisons to those of Adocidae.
• Adocidae are extinct, omnivorous freshwater cryptodiran turtles and are mainly known from Cretaceous and Paleogene Asia and North America.^[1]
• Nanhsiungchelyidae and Adocidae form the basal extinct clade Adocusia of the Pan-Trionychia which consists of the living soft-shelled turtles.
• Nanhsiungchelyids had different habitats compared with adocids.
• However, Nanhsiungchelyidae and Adocidae shared some reproductive traits including thick eggshells, mid-size clutches, and large eggs.
• The unusual thickness of Nanhsiungchelyids eggshell may be associated with a nesting style adaptation to a very harsh environment.

Sources:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2021.1239

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adocidae

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