-Priyanti, Subject Matter Expert at Edumarz
Solution: No, the number of eggs laid by an oviparous mother cannot be the same as the number of offsprings produced by a viviparous mother. The former is always more in number.
This is because in case of oviparous animals, the events of fertilization or development of embryos takes place outside of the mother’s body where they may face harsh environmental conditions. As a result, there are more chances that the eggs will get damaged even before or during development. In order to ensure the complete development of at least one embryo, evolution has made it so that the oviparous animals can lay more numbers of eggs than viviparous animals, where complete development of the embryo occurs safely inside the mother’s body. Oviparous animals compensate by laying multiple eggs at once, so they have better chances of survival.