Chechnya Claims to Have Found Giant Dinosaur Eggs

Scientists in Chechnya are claiming to have stumbled upon the biggest dinosaur eggs ever found—but their colleagues elsewhere are more than a little skeptical. A geologist at the volatile Russian republic's state university says that after a highway crew blasted through a hillside, geologists found some 40 huge fossilized eggs, Reuters reports. He says paleontologists will be needed to determine what kind of dinosaur laid the eggs.

Chechen authorities say the area may become a nature preserve and tourist attraction. Skeptical scientists, however, question the authenticity of the find, and doubt dinosaurs ever lived in the mountainous North Caucasus. "Dinosaurs didn't lay eggs while jumping about like mountain goats," sniffs a Moscow State University paleontologist, adding: "If they want to create a legend for tourists, they should have said the eggs were laid by a mythical Roc bird." (More Chechnya stories.)