Dinosaur eggs are the organic vessels in which a dinosaur embryo develops. When the first scientifically documented remains of dinosaurs were being described in England during the 1820s, it was presumed that dinosaurs had laid eggs because they were reptiles. In 1859, the first scientifically documented dinosaur egg fossils were discovered in France by Jean-Jacques Poech, although they were mistaken for giant bird eggs. The first scientifically recognized dinosaur egg fossils were discovered in 1923 by an American Museum of Natural History crew in Mongolia. Since then many new nesting sites have been found all over the world and a system of classification based on the structure of eggshell was developed in China before gradually diffusing into the West. Dinosaur eggshell can be studied in thin section and viewed under a microscope. The interior of a dinosaur egg can be studied using CAT scans or by gradually dissolving away the shell with acid. Sometimes the egg preserves the remains of the developing embryo inside. The oldest known dinosaur eggs and embryos are from
Massospondylus, which lived during the Early Jurassic, about 190 million years ago.