“This first test revealed small amounts of embryonic material,” he says. “It must have been a slow news day, because the wire services picked up our local media's story and our exam was featured in stories around the world. One supermarket tabloid even had me cloning dinosaur DNA!”

Dr. Shugar has examined unhatched dinosaur eggs from North and South America, and China using CT scanners late at night when they were not needed for patients. Embryonic material was detected in many eggs but in significant amounts in only about 25 percent of the eggs. He says the technique shows the internal architecture and mineralization of unhatched eggs, and his work recently assisted Terry Manning, of Leicester, England, to uncover dinosaur embryos.

This CT scan shows a startling image of a curled therizinosaur embryo. Using longer exposures, higher powers, and special preparation of the eggs, Shugar points out, “the CT scanner is made to think it is looking at a human body instead of a rock.” He plans to continue working with Terry Manning, Philip Currie, and fossil dealers Florence and Charlie Magovern to uncover the secrets of dinosaur eggs.