oviparous
adjUK /əʊˈvɪpəɹəs/ · US /oʊˈvɪpəɹəs/
Etymology Adapted borrowing of Late Latin ōviparus + -ous. By surface analysis, ovi- + -parous.
1
Depositing eggs that develop and hatch outside the body as a reproductive strategy.
- The echidna is a monotreme, which is the extremely small subset of oviparous mammals.
- And though it might be thought that all animals who have lungs do cough; yet in cataceous fishes, who have large and strong lungs, the same is not observed; nor yet in oviparous quadrupeds: and in the greatest thereof, the crocodile, although we read much of their tears, we find nothing of that motion.1643, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend:
1 more example
- Until fairly recently, no female Somniosus had been observed to be carrying embryos, so it was assumed that this was an oviparous species.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 138:
- Derived terms
- oviparously, oviparousness, semioviparous
- Related terms
- oviparity, ovoviviparous, viviparous