'The specimen is unusually fine in that it appears to have suffered no appreciable degree of distortion during the compaction and compression of the containing sedimentary rock and any subsequent earth movements. It is evident that a few of the shell fragments that form its surface, having become accidentally detached from the underlying rock core, have been skilfully replaced with some appropriate adhesive; such minor repair, however, is perfectly normal in palaeontological specimens. There is no reason to doubt the assertion that the specimen comes from Montagne St Victoire, near Aix-en-Provence (Southern France), in which case it lay in rocks of Maastrichtian (late Cretaceous) age. The most recent dating of the Maastrichtian is from 74.5 to 66.4 million years ago; let us say 70 million, with a tolerance of about plus or minus 4 million.
Dinosaur eggs from Montagne St.Victoire are common as shell fragments but rare as complete eggs. They are generally assumed to have come from the sauropod dinosaur Hypselosaurus,the only animal whose remains have been found in those beds and which is big enough to have laid such enourmous eggs. Sauropods are the large, four legged herbivores like Diplodocus and Brontosaurus; they include the biggest of all land animals, some perhaps weighing more than one hundred tons. Hypselorous, of which only partial skeletons are known, appears to have been in a much smaller size category.'
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