Learn All About Astounding Animals That Hatch From Eggs!

Birds, one of the most prominently known egg-laying animals, are not the only animals to lay eggs as many other animal species also follow the same birthing process.

An animal kingdom is a vast group of multicellular organisms that are divided into several classes to identify each species distinctively. One such way to divide these animals into groups is by knowing the way they reproduce.

Thinking of an egg may lead you to your breakfast table, but before reaching your plate, these eggs have the potential to create a new life. That's how many animals create their babies!

An egg is the foundation of life. Both humans and animals are created from eggs by their parents; the only difference that makes species distinct is the birthing process. There are two forms of reproduction following which young ones are born, and while both require the creation of an egg, the birthing process differs widely.

Viviparity is the method where animals give birth to young ones, and oviparity is the process where animals lay eggs to have offspring hatch out of it. Today, we'll learn all about astounding oviparous animals, i.e., animals that hatch from eggs.

Check out facts about animals in Iran and animals in Iceland for more interesting articles.

Mammals That Lay Eggs

Mammals are a group of warm-blooded animals with vertebrates and mammary glands and are also said to carry their offspring as compared to other species. Do mammals lay eggs?

This is a frequent question many may wonder about while learning about egg-hatching animals. Mammals are not capable of laying eggs like other species.

This group of animals is viviparous that gives birth to the young ones directly. Humans, cats, dogs, or tigers all come under the category of mammals and are known to birth young ones. However, there are always exceptions, and so is the case in the class Mammalia.

A few species of mammals lay eggs to give birth to their babies, and surprisingly, these all belong to the same group of animals. These special egg-laying mammals are called monotremes.

Monotremes comprise a group of predators, with most of them belonging to the echidnas. Monotremes, due to their supposedly reptilian character in the past, the class of mammals has special animals that lay eggs. These special creatures to lay eggs are the platypus, the eastern long-beaked echidna, the western long-beaked echidna, the short-beaked echidna, and the Attenborough echidna.

Reptiles That Lay Eggs

Reptiles are cold-blooded animals and insects with scaly skin or shells. This group of animals is known to create astounding creatures through eggs that take a while to develop and then hatch on their own.

Some reptilian mothers, like crocodiles, use their mouths to crack open the eggs to help the babies come out. There are several reptiles following a fascinating birth journey to lay eggs. Let us see some of them.

Sea turtles: The reproduction process of the sea turtles is highly fascinating as the creature lays around 100 eggs on the nesting beach and uses its back flipper to dig the sand ground creating a nest.

Such warm nests shield eggs for the period of two months, after which little turtles start to hatch their way out of the shell to the ground.

Frogs: Reproduction in frogs occurs outside the body as the female frog releases eggs in the water, ready to combine with sperm to start the development process. Frogs can only reproduce once every year.

One distinct feature about frog eggs is they do not have shells. Instead, frog eggs are contained within a jelly-like shell to hold it firm till the eggs hatch.

Crocodiles: A fun fact about crocodiles releasing an egg is that the egg changes its sex according to the surrounding temperature of and around the egg. A crocodile parent buries the eggs in nests located around the land riverside to allow ample time to hatch.

Fish: Fish own a choice of following any of three methods to reproduce. The first method is through sexual reproduction as the fish eggs' fertilization occurs inside the female fish, which are released in the water.

The second method follows fish to release eggs into the water, which male fish further fertilize. The last method of fertilizing fish eggs is when a fish retains the egg inside itself only to release young ones in the water after it is hatched inside.

Examples of a few other reptiles that lay eggs are lizards, turtles, snakes, and land turtles.

The Most-Consistent Egg Layers

Birds and all their types are known to be consistent egg layers. Not only that, but they also lay some of the largest eggs in the world; for example, an ostrich egg obtained from the bird ostrich is the largest egg among all the animal groups across the animal kingdom. The vervain hummingbird lays the smallest eggs.

All birds give birth by laying eggs. The main reason why birds are naturally built to lay eggs is that they would find it difficult to fly with a baby inside them.

A bird has the ability to lay one or more eggs every day. With the safety of their nests created out of leaves and feathers to protect them from snakes or other creatures, a bird manages to lay eggs and wait for them to hatch.

Reptiles lay eggs, but not as much as birds lay eggs. A chick then hatches from the egg after the incubation period.

Ovoviviparity

A combination of oviparity and viviparity, ovoviviparity is a bridge that joins these two reproduction types.

An ovoviviparous animal contains eggs within itself and gives birth to the young ones. In this process, embryos develop within the egg, retained within the creature, but the creatures born through this process do not have any placental attachment to their mother.

Some examples of ovoviviparous animals are sharks, aphids, flies, bugs, and a few types of fish as well.

Differences Between Oviparous and Viviparous Animal

Oviparous and viviparous are two different forms of animals grouped according to their reproduction process. To decipher the differences between them, first, we need to understand what both of these mean.

Oviparous animals are the ones hatched from eggs and have to follow the same process to create offspring. Oviparous animals do not have to go through all the birth processes internally as the process of fertilization is internal, but the embryonic development is carried outside of the female body completely.

The embryo further develops and reaches its maturity to hatch out of the eggshell.

During their embryonic stage, oviparous animals take nutrition from the yolk present inside the egg until the process of a hatching reaches its conclusion. Examples of oviparous animals are birds, frogs, sea turtles, ostrich, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, some insects, a few species of sharks, and many more amphibians and reptiles.

Viviparous animals directly give birth to the young ones instead of eggs. Humans are the most widely known viviparous group where the presence of an egg does not work as it traditionally does among other animals, i.e., growing out of the female body and hatching to conclude the procedure.

Instead, the process of fertilization occurs inside the female animals' bodies as the egg attaches itself to the uterine lining and proceeds to grow.

Viviparity leads human bodies, too, to lay eggs, but these eggs are different from birds or reptiles.

The development stage of the egg to a young one also takes place inside the body itself as the offspring continues to take nutritional benefits by being connected to the mother's body. Examples of viviparous animals include humans, cats, lions, dogs, and various others.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for animals that hatch from eggs, then why not take a look at animals in the Arctic Ocean or animals of the Great Barrier Reef?