(XINHUA)

A Chinese paleontologist inspects a fossilized dinosaur egg nest in the Geological Museum of China in Beijing on February 28.

The rare dinosaur egg nest, 65-million-year-old, was unearthed in south China's Guangdong Province in 1984. It was later smuggled out of China and then bought by an American collector in 2003. At an auction in Los Angeles in 2006, the fossilized nest was sold for $420,000. It was returned to China for free afterward.

The nest contained 22 unhatched eggs arranged in a circular pattern along the edge. Embryonic remains were uncovered in 19 eggs and one egg was removed for study. Some eggs are so well-preserved that the embryos curled inside are visible. This is the first time the Chinese Government has successfully used diplomatic channels to recover a paleontologic fossil that had been removed from the country.