Life Science Encyclopedia

Oviparous animals are animals that lay eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of many fish, amphibians and reptiles, all birds, the monotremes, and most insects and arachnids.

Land-dwelling animals that lay eggs, often protected by a shell, such as reptiles and insects, do so after having completed the process of internal fertilization. Water-dwelling animals, such as fish and amphibians, lay their eggs before fertilization, and the male lays its sperm on top of the newly laid eggs in a process called external fertilization.