RALEIGH -- A team of paleontologists led by Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and assistant research professor at N.C. State University, has recovered a "clutch" of more than eight football-sized oviraptorosaur eggs estimated around 97 million years old.

The eggs appear to have been in a nest which has been fossilized. The site also contained evidence of ancient trees that once lined the river bank where the dinosaur liked to make nests.

According to a release by the Museum, while hundreds of oviraptorosaur eggs have been found in Asia, only two other eggs of this kind have been found on (or in) North American soil. 

The eggs were found in October and have been brought back to North Carolina. 

Chief fossil preparator Aaron Giterman has begun to slowly release the fossil eggs from the surrounding rock so they can be studied.

The site also contained evidence of ancient trees that once lined the river bank where the dinosaur parents-to-be sat roosting on their nests.