| Value |
1338
cm^3
|
| Organism |
Ostrich Struthio camelus |
| Reference |
C. Brooke Worth, Egg Volumes and Incubation Periods, The Auk, Vol. 57, No. 1, Jan., 1940 pp. 44-60 Table - link |
| Primary Source |
List of refs in table |
| Method |
The approximate volume of an egg may be obtained from its average
measurements by the formula for an ellipsoid:V=(p/6)×a×b^2 where a is the long axis of the egg and b is the widest transverse axis. Egg
measurements are subject to a maximum variability of 20 per cent (Fisher),
but since longer eggs are usually narrower, the variability in volume is possibly not so great, whereas the use of average egg measurements undoubtedly gives a substantially correct value for average volumes.
An egg is not a true ellipsoid, since it is somewhat narrowed in the maternal oviduct. Among hens' eggs author found volumes by water displacement which were 15 per cent less than those calculated by the ellipsoid formula. On the basis of the following study he has concluded that this is a fairly representative correction for other eggs. The table shows a list of: egg weights from Bergtold the volumes calculated from these weights (using a constant specific gravity of 1.07 as in the hen) the volumes calculated by formula from average egg measurements and the calculated volumes subjected to a correction of -15%. It will be
seen that there is a general agreement between the egg-weight volume and the corrected-formula volume. |
| Comments |
Value not found in ref. Needs better ref. Strictly speaking only the central "yolk" is a single cell. The elephant bird of Madagascar laid larger eggs before it went extinct a few hundred years ago. The unfertilized ostrich egg is the largest known cell. Its volume is equal to ~25 hen eggs. The ostrich egg volume was taken according to most conservative formula, after subtraction of 15% (see measurement method). |
| Entered by |
Uri M |
| ID |
105104 |