| Sea turtle eggs are not hard like bird eggs but are
leathery and pliable. They are a bit larger than a ping pong ball and
have a dimple on the surface to allow for expansion. "It's smooth shell
shuts in the white and yolk. It keeps the embryo alive in its shell.
Supported, fed, unpoisoned, and unasphyxiated." "The shelled egg, laid on land, is a kind of private sequestered pool in which a tender, beginning reptile can go through its perishable stages in much the same environment its ancestors lived in. The egg itself is a terrestrial adaption, but the animal it harbors is still aquatic." |