About 100 fossilized dinosaur eggs, each about the size of a small melon, have been found in southern France.

The eggs were discovered in recent months at The Dinosaur Museum and Park in Mèze, a coastal town in the south of the country, according to The Times. Researchers believe they date back about 72 million years to the Late Cretaceous period, when the region was part of the Ibero-Armorican Island, a prehistoric landmass made up of modern-day Spain, Portugal and southern France.

Geologist and museum founder Alain Cabot found the eggs on land belonging to the museum and said he believes many more could lie deeper underground.

“It’s an extraordinary deposit and it will take generations of palaeontologists to study it,” Cabot told The Times.

Cabot said he believes the eggs were laid by titanosaurs, long-necked herbivores that measured about 15 metres and weighed between 15 and 20 tonnes. He said the dinosaurs repeatedly returned to the same area to lay their eggs.

“They were like gnus in Kenya. They always went back to the same spot,” he said, adding that the nesting ground covers an area 14.5 kilometres by 4.8 kilometres.

Researchers believe periodic flooding and river overflows preserved the eggs by burying them in sediment millions of years ago.

The find has stirred excitement in France, with some suggesting the site could one day rival dinosaur egg deposits in Argentina and China.

“There are millions of eggs in southern France. I think it could be the biggest deposit in the world,” Cabot, who founded the museum three decades ago, told the newspaper.

But not all palaeontologists agree. Romain Amiot, a palaeontologist at the Laboratory of Geology of Lyon, told The Times that dinosaur eggs are relatively common in parts of southern France and warned against overstating the find.

“It’s a very fine discovery but it’s not exceptional,” Amiot said.

He added that studying the eggshells found at Mèze could offer insight into prehistoric biodiversity and the effects of climate change on ancient ecosystems.

“There is a real societal interest in understanding how biodiversity has evolved in this changing world,” he said.

Cabot said he believes the eggs should stay in the ground on museum property.

“If they are extracted they will end up in cellars and on shelves somewhere. They deserve to be seen here,” he said.

He added that he has seen dinosaur eggs from China sold online for more than $20,000 and said his goal in founding the museum was to stop the site from being “pillaged” by people looking to make money.

“We have saved the site. But it has been complicated,” he added.

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