Eggs on sale at Christie鈥檚 are usually by Faberge rather than by Hypselosaurus.
But the 70-million-year-old dinosaur egg fetched 拢5500 at last week鈥檚
auction of scientific instruments and 鈥榦ther apparatus鈥�.
The 18.2-centimetre-long egg, authenticated by Alan Charig of the Natural
History Museum, was probably laid by the herbivorous Hypselosaurus during
the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period near Aix-en-Provence. The
site at Montagne St Victoire became famous in the 1950s for its dinosaur
eggs. Some limestone deposits are almost entirely made up of eggshells and
whole nests of eggs of a dozen types have been found. Most eggs are crushed
or distorted, and this specimen is 鈥榰nusually fine鈥�, says Charig. The surrounding
foliage, however, looks more like Christie鈥檚 interior than prehistoric Provence.
The site near Aix is now protected, which might explain the high price
fetched by this specimen. In 1972, Sotheby鈥檚 sold a similar egg for 拢260.
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