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It is not an April Fool’s joke, the spokesperson for the Isala hospital confirms, although he has been asked the question many times. During the Easter weekend and just a day before the Easter Bunny hides eggs, radiologists will look for embryos in dinosaur eggs.
Collector Jeroen Philips has already done a lot of research on his five dinosaur eggs. On the advice of the Naturalis research institute in Leiden, he looked for a hospital that would help him with the most difficult part: looking inside the egg. “Embryos are found, but that happens very rarely. Twenty have been found in different sizes in the last 120 years. In China they found such an egg and with it they were able to demonstrate that the birds are directly descended from the dinosaurs.”
The Isala hospital in Meppel wanted to help Philips, but only on a quiet Saturday morning when the scanners are only used for emergencies, because they always come first. The staff here is voluntary, confirms radiologist Leo Kluijtmans. And scanning an egg is a bit different than scanning a human. “Normally we have to take the (radiation, ed.) dose into account. This is of course not necessary with an egg and that is a good thing, because the dose is much higher otherwise you cannot get through the rock.”
One by one the eggs are placed on the bed of the CT scanner. As the warning signals for the high doses go through the control room, several eyes watch the screens with anticipation. “The tension is very high,” says Philips. “Because I saw a spot that I thought I recognized as a small embryo. But that doesn’t have to be it.”
Philips is not in it for the money. “It’s a kind of hunt for the embryo. There is no financial element behind it. I know that they are worth a lot if there is an embryo in them, but I also know that the chance is very small,” laughs Philips. “It gives a special feeling. People who collect eggs understand that and also that it feels like a time capsule. That it can be touched and felt. This is the egg, the beginning.”
After all the eggs have gone through the scanner, it is clear that four eggs had no life in them. But that cannot yet be said for one egg. “The last egg looks very different on the inside,” confirms radiologist Kluijtmans. “But we cannot say why this is the case. We want to look at other images to see whether we can say something about it or whether we need to call for help.”
So there is still hope for one of the five eggs. Philips also adheres to this. “Who knows?”
