The Thing was discovered somewhere back in 2011, and almost a decade later scientists have seemed to have made a slight breakthrough in understanding this huge egg fossil.

The Thing is 11 inches long and 7 inches wide, making it a perfect candidate for being an egg of a dinosaur. However, the eggs of a dinosaur are brittle and hard. This one on the other hand is quite soft. And the only other species that could lay these soft eggs, ready for a hatch, are the reptiles. A recent study suggests that the egg belongs so some giant ancient reptile.

Fossils of mosasaurus were found previously in the same region as that of The Thing, which is Antarctica. Mosasaurus, are giant ancient reptiles and it is a possibility that The Thing could have been laid by one of them. If such is the case, then all previous studies made regarding these species would go down the drain since its known that they never laid any eggs.

After studying 260 other reptiles, it could be said that the egg belongs to a reptile that is 20 feet long. Since no skeletons are found within the egg, there is still a lot of research pending in order to find out to whom this mysterious egg actually belongs.

The study, “A giant soft-shelled egg from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica”, was authored by Lucas J. Legendre, David Rubilar-Rogers, Grace M. Musser, Sarah N. Davis, Rodrigo A. Otero, Alexander O. Vargas, and Julia A. Clarke