Embryo sheds light on dinosaurs’ demise

Monday, Feb. 23, 1998 | 10:12 a.m.

The first ever CAT scan of a dinosaur embryo proves that the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by a meteor that crashed into the earth 65 million years ago, said Lee Schiel, director of the Nicole Dinosaur Embryo Project.

The CAT scan photo, made possible by a new technology called 4-D CAT scanning, shows the completely intact embryo centered in the egg rather than lying in the bottom. That means that Nicole, the 42-day-old embryo, was frozen in her fluid, a result Schiel says is only possible from a meteorite crash.

"It's a brand-new discovery. The scientific community isn't even aware of it," said an enthusiastic Schiel as he stood behind a table containing a nest of segnosaurus eggs and a photo of the embryo at the Las Vegas History Museum.

The Cat scan, which shows a meteorite shard embedded in the egg next to Nicole's egg, also indicates the embryo with the head and legs arched back. Schiel believes the embryo froze to death in this position. Normally, the researcher explained, embryos develop in a fetal position.

Schiel estimated that the temperature in the egg was 95 degrees when the meteorite struck, and that within 20 hours the temperature dropped to near zero, freezing the embryo.

In an attempt to prove Schiel's theory, Dr. Paul Cardahlac, an embryologist at the University of Florida, plans to recreate the extinction scenario using two alligator embryo's the same age as Nicole.

Cardahlac explained that one alligator embryo will be left to die at room temperature, so that the fluid will release and the embryo will fall to the the bottom of the egg. The second alligator embryo will be frozen in an attempt to duplicate the conditions affecting the Nicole embryo 65 million years ago. Researchers will then determine whether the head and legs of the alligator embryo arch back.

Schiel, who plans to base his project at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, said luck had a factor in the discovery of the eggs. An avid art collector, Schiel was traveling through China on an art expedition when 5,000 eggs were discovered at a nesting site in China's Hunan province.

The eggs can be viewed at the Las Vegas Museum of Natural History.