• DOI:10.1023/A:1022848632125
Corpus ID: 8319185

The Origin of Lactation as a Water Source for Parchment-Shelled Eggs

@article{Oftedal2004TheOO,
  title={The Origin of Lactation as a Water Source for Parchment-Shelled Eggs},
  author={O. Oftedal},
  journal={Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia},
  year={2004},
  volume={7},
  pages={253-266}
}

O. Oftedal

Published 2004

Medicine, Biology

Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia

Available evidence indicates that mammary gland secretions first evolved in synapsids that laid parchment-shelled eggs. Unlike the rigid-shelled eggs of birds and some other sauropsids, parchment-shelled eggs lose water very rapidly when exposed to ambient air of lower vapor pressure, whether due to differences in relative humidity or to differences in temperature. This precludes endothermic incubation of parchment-shelled eggs in an open nest. Synapsids may have avoided egg desiccation by… CONTINUE READING

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