A report making the rounds online claims that a 200-million year old dinosaur egg hatched in a Berlin Museum. It’s fake.

Fake Story

Let’s first take a look at what has circulated on and off since March 2014. In an article published by World News Daily Report, we read:

A malfunction with the heating system of the Museum für Naturkunde (or Museum of Natural History) had some unforeseen consequences, as a Gasosaurus egg dating from the Jurassic period ended up hatching, giving birth to the first dinosaur to see the daylight in more than 100 million years.

The egg which was believed to be petrified was preserved in a small storage room situated right next to the boiler room. When the system started overheating a few weeks ago, it seems to have surprisingly initiated the incubation process, leading the egg to hatch.

World News Daily Report

This website publishes outlandish tabloid-style articles, offering no sources or corroboration. Other recent articles on the site include, “Top Iranian official warns Obama is a clone” and “Moon astronaut admits on deathbed: Obama could be an alien.”

No respected news sources have reported such an event.

The Photo

The image included with the story appears to have been taken from this Flickr account, which has many other photos of museum displays of dinosaurs along with screen shots of dinosaur animations. That image was posted back in 2006.

History

The fake dinosaur story first began circulating in early March 2014. It had small resurgences in May and September of that year. It appears in late June 2015 that the story is gaining traction yet again, as evidenced by increased readership here at Wafflesatnoon, and the Google Trends chart below.

Bottom Line

A 200-million year old dinosaur egg did not hatch in a Berlin museum. The story first appeared on a fake news website in March 2014, and has reappeared several times since.

Updated June 29, 2015
Originally published March 2014