eli5: How do other animals produce more than 1 baby at a time?

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This is a pretty broad question so let me explain:

I obviously know how human babies are made, sperm goes into the egg and develops into a baby. Sometimes more than one baby can come out of the egg splits after fertilization or if two seperate eggs are fertilized at the same time. How do other animals produce more than one baby (like cats, rodents, etc)? Is it the same process?

In: Biology

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Basically the same process, for mammals, anyway. For cats for example, when they’re on heat they release a new egg for every encounter. So the amount of kittens is the amount of times they got laid and can be numerous partners. Rats produce multiple eggs during their mating period. If you’re asking WHY they do, it’s likely because smaller mammals generally have shorter lives and far more predators, so from an evolutionary perspective fewer young will make it to breeding age so producing larger litters will make the species more likely to survive.

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