Unhatched and Hatched Eggshells of the Chinese CobraNaja atra

Unhatched and Hatched Eggshells of the Chinese

CobraNaja atra

Zheng WANG;Longhui LIN;Xiang JI

【期刊名称】《亚洲两栖爬行动物研究（英文版）》

【年(卷),期】2014(000)004

【摘要】Changes in structure and composition of the eggshell resulting from embryonic mobilization of minerals from the eggshell are found in all oviparous reptiles studied thus far. In this study, we measured samples of unhatched and hatched eggshells of the Chinese cobraNaja atrato determine the percentage of ash and the phase composition of calcium carbonate. The mean percentage of ash was signiifcantly higher in unhatched eggshells (24.6%) than in hatched eggshells (22.3%). The dominant phase in unhatched eggshells was the calcite form of calcium carbonate. In addition to the peaks of calcite, a few small peaks were found to be caused by the aragonite and vaterite phases of calcium carbonate, implying that there are small amounts of aragonite and vaterite in the eggshell. The concentration of the various phases calculated from the intensity of the X-ray diffraction spectra allowed the estimation that percentages of calcite, aragonite and vaterite were about 92%, 4% and 4%, respectively. Hatched eggshells produced similar spectral characteristics as unhatched eggshells, with one exception. The dominant phase composition in the hatched eggshell