Ovoviviparous animals are a class of animals that hatch from eggs, eggs that remain inside the mother until just before hatching. Ovoviparity or ovoviparism is therefore a mixture between oviparism (animals that lay eggs to reproduce) and viviparism (animals that develop inside the mother’s body). They are, in short, an example of genetic evolution based on survival. As nature is so wise and we know that it never ceases to amaze you we explain what are the ovoviviparous animals.
Ovoviviparous fish
Despite its resemblance to whales or dolphins, the shark is not a mammal, but a fish. And they are incredible fish, there are anyway: viviparous, oviparous and ovoviviparous.
Most fish generate a large number of small eggs that they deposit in places they consider safe for their young, waiting for the male to fertilize them by spraying them with his sperm. But this technique is ineffective, since most eggs die soon and newborn larvae have a very low survival rate due to predators and environmental conditions.
That is why some sharks and other fish such as the Manta Ray, the Guppys, Mollys or Plattys, have opted for a more intelligent form of reproduction: ovoviparity. As in viviparous animals, the eggs are fertilized internally and are well protected inside the females that nourish them through a placenta like mammals.
Ovoviviparous snakes
Like sharks, snakes also have the three modes of gestation and birth (oviparism, viviparism, ovoviviparism). The velvet snake, for example, is viviparous. The offspring of this poisonous specimen are born alive from the mother, who can give birth to an average of 30 offspring after a pregnancy that lasts between 180 and 240 days. Of course, once they are born the female does not take care of the babies: from the first day of its life the velvet snake is dedicated to hunting.
The coral snake, another extremely venomous species, is an oviparous snake. The mother lays the eggs in a place she considers suitable and waits for the eggs to be excluded in the wild, with all the risks that this entails. If you want to read more about poisonous animals you will be interested in our article which is the most poisonous animal in the world.
For its part, the boa constrictor, one of the largest snakes in the world (it can weigh 30 kilograms and measure up to 4 meters) is ovoviviparous. Inside, the mother keeps the eggs for 7 months and can give birth to up to 25 offspring.
But if we talk about which are the largest ovoviviparous snakes, the number 1 position is for the anaconda. Up to 200 kilograms in weight and 12 meters long, the also known as water boa maintains a gestation of eggs for 6 months and can reach 50 babies.
Other reptiles and amphibians
There are also some species of chameleons that are ovoviviparous and have a gestation of between 5 and 7 months.
The Suriname toad (or pipe pipe), finally, is an extremely strange species of amphibian, although not only because it is ovoviviparous, but because of the flattened and gray appearance. And their strangeness does not end there. Unlike other ovoviviparous animals, this amphibian does not carry the eggs inside, but creates a layer of transparent secondary skin on the back to deposit them and carry them safely everywhere. On its back it can carry between 60 and 100 offspring!
Not all flies lay eggs either. Some of the species of this common and annoying insect are ovoviviparous (the larvae do not see the light until they hatch), such as the tachinidae fly, insects a little larger than house flies and that inhabit the whole planet.
Other ovoviviparous insects are many species of beetles such as the metal beetle.
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