5 interesting things about eggs

Eggs of the largest elephant bird on the planet, with a length of 28 cm. The live bird's egg on the cliff has a sharp tip that can spin the circle.

Discover surprises about eggs

Eggshell collection at the American Museum of Natural History.(Photo: AMNH / C.Chesek)

1. Different shapes

Eggs can be round or slightly pointed depending on the species . Birds murre (uria aalge) often nest on narrow cliffs, their eggs resemble a pear shape. "If you try to push the egg, it will turn into a circle because it is too heavy at one end. This is how the egg avoids rolling off the narrow cliff ," Live Science quoted Paul Sweet, a History Museum expert. Naturally, America.

2. Colors

Eggshell is composed mainly of calcium carbonate (white). Some eggshell with ultraviolet color cannot be seen with the naked eye and only birds can sense it. Two pigments that produce different colors of eggshell are rushbird (blue, green shell) and protoporphyrins (yellow, red and brown eggshells). Eggshell has spots or lines that often have many protoporphyrins.

3. Size

Elephant eggs (extinct) are the largest , with a length of about 28 cm. In contrast, hummingbirds are the smallest spawn species, with a mass of eggs in a paper clip.

4. Eggshell thickness

The eggshell is thin enough for the chicks to escape from the shell when the egg hatches . It is also thick enough to withstand the weight of the developing embryo inside as well as the weight of the brood at hatching. Australian ostrich breeds green eggs with eggshell thickness of 0.6 cm.

5. Exchanges with external environment

The bird has a hard shell and porous membrane that allows it to metabolize with the external environment , such as oxygen and carbon dioxide.