Reptiles have some specific adaptations that make them well suited to their environment. Discuss some of these adaptations by answering the following question:

A.) What is the advantage of having an egg with its own supply of water, rather than just laying eggs in water?

Question

Reptiles have some specific adaptations that make them well suited to their environment. Discuss some of these adaptations by answering the following question:

A.) What is the advantage of having an egg with its own supply of water, rather than just laying eggs in water?

anonymous · Answer

A.) Reptiles were the first animals to reproduce and lay eggs with shells, making a reliable "sustainable environment" for the embryo.  These are very important since having it's own supply of water, the egg doesn't dry out.

//Bird eggs are virtually self-contained life-support systems. All they require for the embryo to develop properly are warmth and oxygen. Oxygen diffuses into the egg through microscopic holes formed by the imperfect packing of the calcium carbonate crystals that compose the eggshell. There are not many of these pores -- for example, they make up only about 0.02 percent of the surface of a duck egg. Carbon dioxide and water vapor diffuse outward through the same pores. Birds can lay their eggs in even drier environments than reptiles, because when the fatty yolk is broken down to provide energy for the developing embryo, water is produced as a by-product. Reptile eggs primarily use protein as a source of energy and do not produce as much "metabolic water."//