How tentative and experimental the reptiles still are in their efforts to abandon the egg and bear their young alive is dramatically demonstrated by a special little tool which all of them, even the live-born, still have. This is the egg tooth, a sharp protrusion on the snout with which a baby reptile can cut its way out of its tough, membrane-lined shell. To be sure, in live-bearing species which have no need for it the egg tooth is degenerating (even the egg-layers drop it soon after birth). But it still stands as a reminder of the difficult escape problem the shelled egg has always presented for the beak-less reptiles.
Puerto Morelos Cancun Playa del Carmen
