Egg Tooth
The following WikiProjects or Portals may be able to help recruit one:
- • WikiProject Biology· Biology Portal • WikiProject Birds· Birds Portal • WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles· Amphibians and Reptiles Portal
In some egg-laying animals, the egg tooth is a small, sharp, cranial protuberance used by offspring to break or tear through the egg's surface during hatching. It is present in most birds and reptiles, and similar structures exist in monotremes, Eleutherodactyl frogs, and spiders.
Some lizards and snakes develop a true tooth that is shed after use; other reptiles and birds generally develop an analogous epidermal horn that is reabsorbed or falls off.
Famous quotes containing the words egg and/or tooth:
“If there was one egg in it there were nine,
Torpedo-like, with shell of gritty leather,
All packed in sand to wait the trump together.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“If only one tooth aches, rejoice that not all of them ache.... If your wife betrays you, be glad that she betrayed only you and not the nation.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)