I guess they are scientists and know better than me, but my bet is that is will just contain sludge.

Egg shells are more organic than you expect.

This is why you use stuff like waterglass https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate to seal them.

> Egg shells are more organic than you expect.

I expect them to be completely organic. What else would they be?

Mostly calcium carbonate.

The eggshell looks like a century egg, but as mentioned by the comment the contents may have decomposed if the mud wasn't alkaline like the century egg production process.

I wonder why they don't put it in a CT scanner first before breaking it.

Apologies, apparently I missed this part in the article since the large ad banner immediately next to it distracted me.

Install an ad blocker, friend!

> A Micro CT scan showed that this ancient egg is still full of liquid.

> “Researchers are planning to carefully extract the liquid to better study it,” stated Edward Biddulph, Senior Project Manager, who oversaw the site excavation. “It’s a controlled process similar to egg blowing, where a tiny hole is made in its shell after creating a 3D model.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_microtomography

I think it is a mistake not to cut the top off the egg and just look inside as ancient egg shell has no value after it drys out and the visual information may be unique,so off with its top, and then take samples of the "liquid" and the inner shell lining, if it's present, and then see if there is any remaining structure of an embryo or the egg as laid.

>Scientists are eager to use DNA testing to establish the species that laid the egg

how much DNA is in an egg, isn't it just a single cell with a single nucleus? and if unfertilized is haploid?

In addition to the single nucleus the egg can contains trace of DNA from the mother

Story of an egg that never hatched.

Of course they are going to break it.

I'm willing to bet there's a dragon in that egg.

I think they should not pierce it, but instead leave it for future humans to study.

Science funding requires doing something. Nobody funds you to not do something.

Regardless of getting funding, I don't see why our level of technology is not adequate to study an egg.

Forbidden breakfast!

This is actually my wife's job/area of research, except typically they use the eggshell proteins to determine taxonomy. It's extremely rare that DNA survives in these types of samples but the proteins are preserved in the eggshell's mineral matrix.

What's your definition of a scientist?

I wonder if many of history's greatest scientists might fail to meet it.

"Scientist" is cool, but personally I would call myself a "forensic archeologist" if I had this gig.

It's usually just called archaeology or perhaps biomolecular archaeology. Forensic archaeology is a bit different, and it usually pertains to humans and their crimes.

I dare them to make an omelette wit that.

Can't make science without breaking an egg!

Fry it up with bog butter!