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After internal fertilization and the habit of laying eggs in terrestrial environments became a reproduction strategy amongst the amniote ancestors, the next major breakthrough appears to have involved a gradual replacement of the gelatinous coating covering the amphibian egg with a fibrous shell membrane. This allowed the egg to increase both ...
Reptiliomorpha (meaning reptile-shaped; in PhyloCode known as Pan-Amniota [2] [3]) is a clade containing the amniotes and those tetrapods that share a more recent common ancestor with amniotes than with living amphibians (lissamphibians).
The anamniotes are an informal group of craniates comprising all fish and amphibians, which lay their eggs in aquatic environments.They are distinguished from the amniotes (reptiles, birds and mammals), which can reproduce on dry land either by laying shelled eggs or by carrying fertilized eggs within the female.
Eggs laid by many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, have probably been eaten by people for millennia. Popular choices for egg consumption are chicken, duck, roe, and caviar, but by a wide margin the egg most often humanly consumed is the chicken egg, typically unfertilized.
[66] [67] Amphibians must return to water to lay eggs; in contrast, amniote eggs have a membrane ensuring gas exchange out of water and can therefore be laid on land. Amphibians and amniotes were affected by the Carboniferous rainforest collapse (CRC), an extinction event that occurred around 307 million years ago. The sudden collapse of a ...
Several authors have suggested that terrestrial eggs evolved from amphibian eggs laid on land to avoid predation on the eggs and competition from other labyrinthodonts. [62] [63] The amniote egg would necessarily have had to evolve from one with an anamniote structure, as those found in fish and modern amphibians. [59]
Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop inside eggs that remain in the mother's body until they are ready to hatch.
Many ancient reptile groups are known from egg fossils including crocodilians, dinosaurs, and turtles. [3] Some ancient reptiles, like ichthyosaurs [8] and plesiosaurs [9] are known to have given live birth and are therefore not anticipated to have left behind egg fossils. Dinosaur eggs are among the most well known kind of fossil reptile eggs. [3]