Work crews upgrading a road in southern China have uncovered 43 fossilized dinosaur eggs, 19 of which were intact. After the initial discovery it took only two hours of digging to unearth the full collection.

Heyuan, a city of about 3 million people in Guangdong province, had been officially dubbed “Hometown of the Dinosaur in China” and with good reason. In 1996, the first dinosaur eggs in the region were found on a river bank. Since that time, 17,000 full or partial dinosaur eggs, primarily from oviraptorid and duck-billed dinosaurs have been found in the area surrounding the city.

The museum in Heyuan is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for its fossilized egg collection.

The latest find is the first to be made in the city’s center but likely won’t be the last.

Du Yanli, the director of the city’s Dinosaur Museum has said that he believes many other dinosaur remains will be found in sandstone beds around the city and that construction projects should be halted if and when fossils are found according to the South China Morning Post.

In 2004 a farmer in the area was detained by police after 557 fossilized eggs were found at his home which had not been reported to authorities.

The eggs will be examined by experts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to determine their age and the species they belong to. However, Yanli reports that the eggs are large with one measuring about 5 inches in diameter.

In addition to the eggs, eight fossilized skeletons and 168 footprints have been found in the area. All of the fossils to date are from the late Cretaceous period, 89 to 65 million years ago.

Of the skeletons found, seven belong to a species that is named for the city. Heyuannia or “Heyuannia One” is a genus of feathered oviraptor originally found in the area and first described in 2003. The animals were about 5 feet long and weighed over 40 pounds. The oviraptorid was toothless with a steep snout and short skull.

In addition to its treasure trove of ancient fossils, the area is also home to something of a living fossil. In March a giant salamander, thought to be extinct in the area, was found by a park ranger.

The two and a half foot long, 11 pound amphibian is listed as critically endangered throughout China by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Known as the ‘wa wa yu’ or ‘baby fish’, the animals have barely changed since the Jurassic period 170 million years ago, long before the region’s dinosaur eggs were laid.