• What are oviparous animals?
• Examples of oviparous animals

We explain what oviparous animals are and how these animals are classified. Also, the types of eggs and examples of oviparous.

Oviparous animals are characterized by laying eggs.

What are oviparous animals?

Oviparous animals are those whose reproductive process includes the deposit of eggs in certain environment, within which the offspring culminate their embryonic formation and maturation process, until later emerging as a formed individual.

The term oviparous comes from the Latin:ovum, "Egg" andgive birth, "Give birth", that is, refers to animals that lay eggs. In this they differ from viviparous animals (like own human being), who give birth to their fully formed young, more or less ready for an independent existence.

There are two types of oviparous animals, according to their fertilization:

• Internally fertilized oviparous. Those that lay dry eggs, already fertilized, as the male fertilizes the female inside her body.
• Oviparous from external fertilization. Those in which the female deposits soft, unfertilized eggs in the environment, and then the male fertilizes them with his sperm.

It may be that an animal is ovoviviparous, that is, an intermediate category between viviparous and oviparous: their young are born from fertilized eggs inside the mother's body, where they also hatch. The young then remain inside it until they mature and are expelled along with the egg residues.

Lyoudifferent types ofeggs

The number of eggs deposited and their physical characteristics vary enormously from one species to another, but are generally biologically adapted to ensure the survival of the new individual as much as possible.

For this reason, dry eggs have a resistant shell that hardens in contact with the air, and that newborns must break from within to be born. In contrast, wet eggs often have specialized chemistry to adhere to surfaces and avoid debris. predators.

Eggs may hatch shortly after laying or may require days or weeks of incubation.

Examples of oviparous animals

All of the following are oviparous animals:

• The turtles of land and sea, some of which tend to migrate for miles to spawn.
• The reptiles of all kinds: iguanas, salamanders, crocodiles, Komodo dragons, chameleons, etc.
• Poisonous snakes (like Cobra, Rattlesnake, etc.) or constrictors (like Boas, Anaconda, etc.).
• Platypus and Echidnas are the only mammals oviparous, since being extremely primitive they retain certain reptilian characteristics.
• The vast majority of fish, rays and eels are oviparous. There are very few exceptions. This does not include sharks, for example, that they are ovoviviparous.
• All insects are oviparous: from beetles, butterflies and crickets, even the praying mantis or mosquitoes.
• Also arachnids and crustaceans they are oviparous: crabs, spiders, scorpions, lobsters, etc.
• The birds in their entirety are oviparous, and usually guard their eggs in a nest made by themselves. It doesn't matter if they are big prey birds or a simple hummingbird.
• The dinosaurs were oviparous in their entirety, from the violent predators (such as the Tyrannosaurus), the large herbivores (like Diplodocus) to the smallest (like Compsognatus).