Egg (biology)
An egg results from fertilization of an ovum. The egg is a container for the zygote. It protects the zygote, and feeds the embryo.
The animal embryo develops until it can survive on its own, eggs will often ware hats which point the egg hatches. Most vertebrates, arthropods and molluscs lay eggs outside the mother's body. They are always in some kind of container, a shell or covering.
Reptiles, birds and monotremes lay cleidoic eggs: bird eggs are an example. These are a special kind of egg with a good supply of food and water. They have an outside covering which lets through gases so that carbon dioxide can get out, and oxygen can get in.
Fish, amphibia, insects and arachnids lay simpler eggs in greater numbers, but with much less protection and nourishment.
Live birth
Some animals, mostly mammals, keep the zygote inside their body where the embryo grows until it is ready to be born. These are also cleidoic eggs, but all the development is done inside the mother's body, as with humans.
Most mammals, and a number of marine reptiles, give live birth. Also, there are some invertebrates, such as scorpions, where the eggs develops inside the mother. They also give birth to live young.
Largest egg
The ostrich has the largest eggs of all living animals. Eggs, mostly bird eggs, are often eaten as food. The shell of an egg is a hard calcareous (CaCO3) material. The shell of an ostrich egg can support the weight of a fully grown human.
- Chicks hatching USDA95c1973.jpg
Bird eggs with hatched chick.
- Frog in frogspawn.jpg
A frog with frog eggs.
- Ostrich egg.jpg
An ostrich egg.
- Eggs in carton.jpg
Eggs in a carton.
- Eggs 3 ies.jpg
Butterfly eggs on a stalk.
- Araschnia levana - Eiablage Ausschnitt (ASP).jpg
Map butterfly (Araschnia levana) laying strings of eggs.
Egg (biology) Media
- Oeufs002b.jpg
"ŒUFS" (Eggs), illustration by Adolphe Millot from Nouveau Larousse Illustré [1897-1904]. See key below for details.
- Salmonlarvakils.jpg
Salmon fry hatching. The larva has grown around the remains of the yolk and the remains of the soft, transparent egg are discarded.
- Snapping turtle eggs md.jpg
Turtle eggs in a nest dug by a female common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
- Chicken egg diagram.svg
Diagram of a fertilized chicken egg in its ninth day
- Six eggs views from the top on a white background.jpg
Six commercial chicken eggs
- Oeuf.stl
A 3D model of an egg
Eggs of Common murre. Collection of Jacques Perrin de Brichambaut.
- Editing Image-Acanthodoris lutea laying eggs 2.jpg
Editing Image-Acanthodoris lutea laying eggs 2
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