An exceptionally well-preserved 65 million year-old fossilized dinosaur nest with some broken eggs exposing tiny skeletons is up for auction in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The nest of raptors, fierce predatory dinosaurs, is expected to fetch between $180,000-$200,000.

“It is probably one of the finest dinosaur egg nests in the world. For the tiny skeletons still to be inside the eggs, folded up beautifully like this, means that they had to be almost ready to hatch,” said Thomas Lindgren, consulting director of Natural History for auctioneers Bonhams and Butterfields.

Lindgren said the 22-egg nest, encased in sandstone and containing 10 complete embryos, originated in China. It had been in the hands of private collectors in Asia for the past 20 years before being sold to an American.

Tens of thousands of dollars have been spent on scientific preparation and studies to determine exactly which of the 6-8 known species of small raptor the nest belonged. That will be revealed in a 2007 academic paper now being prepared.

The auction, which also includes several prehistoric skeletons and dinosaur bones, teeth and partial nests, comes at a time of renewed international interest in dinosaurs, particularly in Asia where several nations are pushing ahead with museum building programs.

Posted: 11|29|06 at 9:37 pm. Filed under: US News.