this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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A emu egg (left) next to a cassowary egg (right). They are some of the largest bird eggs on the planet. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by ickplant@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Fun fact, ostrich eggs are nearing The largest land eggs can physically get, so even the dinosaurs didn't have much bigger eggs.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What's the limiting factor?

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If I had to guess it'd be the ability for oxygen to diffuse through the shell and reach the embryo?

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 40 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I got curious and your assumption is correct for one of the limiting factors.

Here is what I found:

  • The shell must be strong enough to support the egg’s weight and protect the embryo, but thin enough for the chick to break through when hatching.
  • As size increases, the weight grows cubically (volume), but shell strength only increases quadratically (surface area), so there’s a point where the shell would have to be too thick to hatch from.
  • The distance from the shell to the center increases.
  • Oxygen diffusion becomes inefficient, and the embryo could suffocate.
  • Larger eggs are harder to keep at a uniform temperature.
  • Birds incubating the eggs would need to generate and distribute more heat, which is physically demanding.
[–] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 4 points 19 hours ago

What's your sources? Begging your pardon, that looks like a perfectly standard GPT answer.

[–] maxwellfire@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

I think point two may be wrong. The strength of a shell should be proportional to its thickness, which would scale linearly with its size (assuming the shell got thicker in proportion to the size). There's definitely a point where a self supporting egg requires very thick shells like you said, but the scaling law you gave uses the wrong change.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Didn't think I would find egg facts so interesting... Cool!

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

That’s eggcelent and I’m eggstatic that you enjoyed. Come back next Easter for more egg facts.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

Benedict!

I don't think I'm doing this right.

[–] coaxil@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Appreciate the share, that's awesome info

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I never even considered that but it makes total sense. Thanks for the great post.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago

No problem. I get curious myself so figure it nice to share with people that don’t tell me they’re not interested in useless facts.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Here is what I found:

  • The shell must be strong enough to support the egg’s weight and protect the embryo, but thin enough for the chick to break through when hatching.
  • As size increases, the weight grows cubically (volume), but shell strength only increases quadratically (surface area), so there’s a point where the shell would have to be too thick to hatch from.
  • The distance from the shell to the center increases.
  • Oxygen diffusion becomes inefficient, and the embryo could suffocate.
  • Larger eggs are harder to keep at a uniform temperature.
  • Birds incubating the eggs would need to generate and distribute more heat, which is physically demanding.
[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any info on why both are GREEN? That's unexpected. Camouflage, maybe?

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I am not an eggspert but after a quick search it seems many bird eggs are green in colour due to a pigment called biliverdin.

Interestingly verde is green in Spanish.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

A lot of biological and other scientific terms are actually Latin or some mix of it. Bili means "Bile". Sources say "verd" in this case comes from French verd an old way to say green (Modern: vert/verte), but in any case the French words still derive from Latin viridis.

Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, and a few other minor languages are all descendants of Latin collectively called the Romance Languages. Speakers of one can often understand a lot of any other of the languages or Latin. Not completely mind you, but enough to get some meaning. Spanish speakers can understand a lot of written Portuguese (but not so much spoken due to pronunciation differences), Italian and Spanish speakers can almost have a conversation spoken or written. Portuguese/Italian/Spanish speakers will have a harder time with French though, they will recognize many written words but not enough to really call it totally understandable, and almost nothing spoken. Etc, etc.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Last 3 points millions of years ago the planet was much warmer with a lot more oxygen so for dinosaurs they would be moot.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Even with it being much warmer I believe it would still be difficult to keep at a uniform temperature.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe it wasn't as difficult as we think?

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Maybe nothing is 🤯

[–] twice_hatch@midwest.social 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tell me about whale eggs? 😯

[–] Fabian@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why is that?

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 day ago

Here is what I found:

  • The shell must be strong enough to support the egg’s weight and protect the embryo, but thin enough for the chick to break through when hatching.
  • As size increases, the weight grows cubically (volume), but shell strength only increases quadratically (surface area), so there’s a point where the shell would have to be too thick to hatch from.
  • The distance from the shell to the center increases.
  • Oxygen diffusion becomes inefficient, and the embryo could suffocate.
  • Larger eggs are harder to keep at a uniform temperature.
  • Birds incubating the eggs would need to generate and distribute more heat, which is physically demanding.