What Egg is That? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Quail

Quail is the common name for the Galliforme family. The eggs in this photo are from the brown quail, but there are several different types of quail including European, American and African (blue). Quails and partridges are different birds, despite the fact that some people use their names interchangably. Quail eggs are considered a delicacy in a range of countries: they are prized not only for their taste but also their ability to cook quickly.

Some Japanese dishes call for raw quail eggs.

Answer: Blackbird

The nursery rhyme, "Sing a Song of Sixpence" refers to 'four and twenty' blackbirds that are baked in a pie. The eggs in this photo are from the Turdus merula, or common blackbird. Other blackbird species include the grey-winged and white-coloured variety.

Answer: Penguin

The penguin has about twenty species, although the number is debated among scientists (some say there are fewer, depending on how they are counted). The emperor penguin is the largest, growing to an average height of about a metre. In contrast, the fairy penguin (also known as the little, or blue) only reaches a height of about 40cm. Most penguins live in very cold climates, but the Galapagos penguin makes its home near the equator. Penguins are all very good swimmers, but no species can fly.

Answer: No

They are in fact crocodile eggs. Alligators can be found in North America and China, but not Africa or Australia. These latter two continents do have a plentiful array of crocodiles, however, including both freshwater and saltwater species. As a general rule, crocodiles are larger and more aggressive than alligators.

Answer: Harlequin bug

The harlequin bug, in contrast to its colorless eggs, has vibrant yellow, red and orange markings. From the family Pentatomidae, it is a type of stinkbug found primarily in the US and Mexico. It gets nourishment from draining the juices from leaves and stalks with its needle-like mouth.

Answer: Turtle

It is in fact a sea turtle; the only one of the options that lay eggs in sand. These marine reptiles can be found in all the earth's oceans except the Arctic. Like many other reptiles, the temperature of the environment (in this case, the sand) determines whether the eggs will hatch males or females.

Answer: ostrich

While it is commonly known that the ostrich is the largest egg of an land animal, the largest egg laid by any animal is that of the whale shark. While sources vary on the exact size, ostrich eggs are around 4-6 inches (10-15cm) long, and almost as big by width. By comparison, a whale shark egg of about 14 inches long was found in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s.

Answer: Snake

While most species of snake lay eggs like their other reptilian counterparts, several species actually give birth to live young. This includes rattlesnakes, anacondas and boa constrictors.

Answer: Yes

Indeed: the first fossilized dinosaur eggs were documented as early as 1859 in France. Jean-Jacques Poech, an amateur naturalist who also happened to be a Catholic priest, discovered the eggs and mistook them for those of a large bird. It wasn't until 1923 that this feat was repeated, when some oviraptor eggs were unearthed by an American Museum of Natural History crew who were searching in Mongolia for human remains.

Answer: Shark

Hope you got that one: only sharks can lay eggs AND be defined as an ocean predator. Most sharks are actually ovoviviparous, which means that the mother hatches the eggs within her body and provides nutrition direct to the embryonic sharks within. The eggs in the picture are from an oviparious shark (meaning they are laid outside the mother in protective sacs), such as the horn shark or Port Jackson shark.