I had this thought while watching ducks.
Birds lay eggs and then sit on them to keep them warm until they are ready.
But why? The eggs was already inside them and it’s warm there of course.
Then I thought it may related to mamals with vaginal canal analogy but the eggs does not grow while out.
So the bird could keep it in the lay it’s just when it’s ready.
My last thought is that carrying the eggs is too dangerous for their safety or its hard to move and gather food.
Please explain 🙂
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That is just how they evolved. Having the babies outside the body does create distinct advantages, as there is less damage to the mother caused by a whole creature growing inside.
In humans, for example, the woman’s organs are rearranged to accommodate the growing fetus, then after a period of months, where the woman is increasingly forced to abstain from any sort of helping or caring for herself and others, the infant tears itself out of the body, leading to sometimes permanent damage and sometimes death.
Egg laying avoids a lot of that. The egg is still large but are most often smooth and easily passed. The fetus grows inside the shell, not the body, so the body doesn’t get reshaped. The mother can leave the egg for periods of time to hunt for food or shore up the nest. And there is very few deaths during egg laying.
Even better, if the mother happens to die before the eggs hatch, it is possible to have something else finish hatching the eggs, where in a human, dead mom usually means dead baby.
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