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The Daily Insight

Which animals are both born from eggs and lay eggs?

Author

Jessica Cortez

Updated on April 03, 2026

Whittington and her team study the Australian three-toed skink (Saiphos equalis), a lizard with the remarkable distinction of being able to both lay eggs and give birth to live young.

Which group of animals is born alive?

Mammals are a group of animals (vertebrates) that have backbones and hair or fur. They are warm-blooded (endothermic), and they have four-chambered hearts. They also feed their young with milk from the mother’s body. The young of most mammals are born alive.

Which animal is born alive by its mother?

Viviparous animals are those whose embryos develop in their mother’s body, where they receive nutrition directly from the parent (usually through a placenta), and who thus give birth to live young.

Which animals that lay eggs?

Birds and fish are not the only animals that lay eggs. Insects, turtles, lizards, and reptiles lay eggs, too. Only two mammals lay eggs: the platypus and the echidna. All other mammals give birth to live babies.

What do you call animals that lay eggs?

Use the adjective oviparous to describe an animal that lays eggs. Birds and lizards are oviparous. In fact, all birds are oviparous, as are most fish, reptiles, and insects. The word oviparous is most often used in biology classes to distinguish egg-laying animals from those that give birth to live babies, like humans.

What animals lay eggs in the ground?

Because eggs in ground nests have color, they are harder for predators to find. Examples of cavity nesters are woodpeckers, owls, kestrels and some flycatchers and swallows. Ground nesters include plovers, gulls and most ducks, geese and swans.

What are animals born from eggs called?

Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and monotremes.

What animals lay eggs?

Which animals are born from eggs?

From Egg to Animal

  • Most snakes come from eggs. Female snakes lay eggs on the ground.
  • Birds come from eggs. Most birds lay eggs in a nest.
  • This mammal lays eggs. This is an echidna.
  • Most frogs come from eggs. Frogs live on land and in water.
  • Did You Know? The ostrich is the biggest bird.
  • Think!

Which animals lay eggs and give live birth?

Which Animal Families Lay Eggs and Live Birth? 1 Reptiles. About 15 to 20 percent of the 9,000 known species of snakes and lizards are live-bearers, Gibbons says. Common garter snakes, for example, 2 Fish. Live birth is also rare in fish, accounting for about two percent of known species, including guppies and sharks. 3 Mammals. 4 Amphibians.

Do all mammals give birth to live young?

However there are some species of reptiles (ex. the gaboon viper), fish (ex. sand tiger sharks), and invertebrates (ex. german cockroaches) keep their eggs inside of them until they are hatched and then expelled from the body. Hope this helps. Most mammals give birth to live young, expect monotremes.

Do reptiles lay eggs or give birth?

Some lay eggs, while others give birth to live young. A few are ovoviviparous, meaning the young grow inside an egg which remains inside the mother’s body until it is ready to hatch. One thing all egg-laying reptiles have in common is that they lay their eggs on land, even if the adults spend their lives in the water.

What animals do not give birth to live babies?

Only birds, turtles, and crocodilians bear no live young at all. Fish. Live birth is also rare in fish, accounting for about two percent of known species, including guppies and sharks.