Artist Paints On 100-Million-Year-Old Fossilised Dinosaur Eggs For Russian Easter At The Weekend

Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency:  Newsflash

These are the paintings a famous artist has created on 100 million-year-old dinosaur eggs for Orthodox Easter.

In many countries, the sale in fossils to private individuals is not forbidden and once they are in the new owner’s hands, they can do what they want with them.

One German university for example revealed that they had recently been asked to reassemble the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that an American millionaire planned to put up in the hallway at his home.

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Famous Russian artist Nikas Safronov, 65, went for something smaller scale than an entire dinosaur after sharing these pictures showing how he had converted the eggs into artwork for his army of 119,000 online followers on Sunday 2nd May.

The day marks Easter Sunday in Russia as the country celebrates easter holidays according to the Julian calendar as opposed to the Gregorian calendar, which is used in most Western countries.

Nikas wrote in the caption that he painted five fossilised eggs ‘in his own style’, adding that the eggs, which were provided by a private collection, were between 70 and 100 million years old and belonged to a dinosaur called Hadrosaurus.

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He wrote: “Hadrosaurus, hadrosaurs (Hadrosauridae, ‘large lizards’) are a family from the order of ornithychia (ornithischia dinosaurs).”

It was a duck-billed herbivore that was one of the largest vertebrates in the world. It moved on two hind legs and was 12 metres (39.3 feet) tall, weighing around 3.5 tonnes (7,716 lbs).

They are known as the duck-billed dinosaurs due to their long, flat snouts resembling that of a duck’s.

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The dinosaurs were found in the modern-day Russian regions of Belgorod, Amur and Sakhalin.

Nikas is a Soviet and Russian artist who has the title of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. His works are included in the private collections of artists such as Sophia Loren and Jean-Paul Belmondo and in prestigious museums such as the Hermitage. (https://bit.ly/3vDk0M0)

It is unclear what he plans to do with the painted fossilised eggs.

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Netizens have reacted positively to the painted fossilised eggs, with ‘anna_ametista’ saying: “These are probably the most extravagant painted Easter eggs I’ve seen!”

And ‘Tatiana.Petrova’ said: “What a beauty! Happy Holidays!”

They were also rather easier to complete compared to the work that the team of German palaeontologists have taken on while putting back together a 300-piece dinosaur fossil of a 39-foot long, 60 million-year-old T-rex for a US millionaire who wants to show off the legendary dinosaur in his home.

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The reconstruction is being carried out by a team at the Dinosaur Museum in the Altmuhltal nature park located in the city of Denkendorf in the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

Experts from the museum putting together the T-rex (Tyrannosaurus) skeleton expect it to reach 12 metres (39 feet) in length and four metres (13.1 feet) in height once completed.

Currently, over a dozen employees are involved in the project, which they expect to finish this summer after which it will be shipped to an unnamed US millionaire.

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The museum director also explained that his team is currently waiting for directions from the owner about whether to arrange the T-Rex in a walking or an attacking position.