More than 99 per cent of all animals that have ever lived on planet Earth have, in the first moments of life, hatched from an egg. Yet for all their abundance, eggs continue to amaze scientists with their unique adaptations and mind-blowing evolutionary workarounds.
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Unhatched stick insects regularly come under attack from parasitic wasps, whose predatory larvae ransack their eggs and eat everything inside. To counter this threat, some species of stick insect have evolved eggs that look like seeds.
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Covered in tiny finger-like projections, the eggs of some mosquito species bind tightly against one another when laid, forming a little raft of eggs that floats on the water surface. Special proteins on the surface of each egg actively repel water, causing the raft to curve upwards at its outermost edges. This helps the egg-raft stay afloat, should choppier conditions occur.
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By mass-spawning together, corals provide predators temporarily with more food than they can possibly eat, thereby enhancing the chances of at least some of their offspring surviving.
