2cm

3.3cm

Up to 60cm

15cm

5cm

0.1cm

1.6cm

Baby skate grow inside egg cases called ‘mermaid’s purses’, placed amongst the weed on the seabed.

Echidna eggs are kept warm in a pouch under the mother’s tummy. This creature is unusual because itit’s one of only two mammals in the world that lay eggs.

Dinosaur eggs were big and leathery. Fossils of their nests show that some species laid up to 20 eggs at once, in case some of the babies died.

One deep-sea Pacific octopus ((Graneledone boreopacifica) looked aer her eggs for 4½ years. That’s much longer than humans have to wait for their baby to be born.

Starling eggs are bright blue! These birds lay a clutch of four to six in a nest.

A butterfly lays up to 500 pin-sized eggs on leaves, which serve as a tasty first meal for the caterpillars when they hatch.

Ostrich eggs are laid in a communal nest, a 3-metre pit dug by the male.

Eggs are the container in which little animals begin their lives. They provide a safe shelter and a source of food to help the baby grow, before it hatches into the world. Many female animals lay eggs, including insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, dinosaurs, fish – and even some mammals. Find out what makes them all so different…

Eggstra-ordinary eggs

How many different types of egg have you come across? Maybe you’ve spotted some in the kitchen, or perhaps out in the garden…