Flight demands may have steered the evolution of bird egg shape
Elongated, asymmetrical forms are common among strongest fliers
EGG DIVERSITY Bird eggs vary greatly in shape, size and color. In a new analysis, researchers look for links between egg shape and birds’ traits and lifestyles.
Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology
The mystery of why birds’ eggs come in so many shapes has long been up in the air. Now new research suggests adaptations for flight may have helped shape the orbs.
Stronger fliers tend to lay more elongated eggs, researchers report in the June 23 Science. The finding comes from the first large analysis of the way egg shape varies across bird species, from the almost perfectly spherical egg of the brown hawk owl to the raindrop-shaped egg of the least sandpiper.
“Eggs fulfill such a specific role in birds — the egg is designed to protect and nourish the chick. Why there’s such diversity in form when there's such a set function was a question that we found intriguing,” says study coauthor Mary Caswell Stoddard, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton University.
Previous studies have suggested many possible advantages for different shapes.
