Egg fossil

A wide variety of different animal groups laid eggs that are now preserved in the fossil record beginning in the Paleozoic.

[1][2] In 1859, the first scientifically documented dinosaur egg fossils were discovered in southern France by a Catholic priest and amateur naturalist named Father Jean-Jacques Poech, however he thought they were laid by giant birds.

[3] The first scientifically recognized dinosaur egg fossils were discovered serendipitously in 1923 by an American Museum of Natural History crew while looking for evidence of early humans in Mongolia.

Egg discoveries continued to mount all over the world, leading to the development of multiple competing classification schemes.

However, in the early 1990s Russian paleontologist Konstantin Mikhailov brought attention to Zhao's work in the English language scientific literature.

[5] Several fossilized fish or amphibian eggs have been classified as ichnogenera, including Mazonova,[6] Archaeoovulus, Chimaerotheca, Fayolia, and Vetacapsula.

There are three broad categories in the scheme, on the pattern of organismal phylogenetic classification, called oofamilies, oogenera and oospecies (collectively known as ootaxa).