Posted by Sherry Henry on August 16, 2007

Q: I live in Ashton, WV (tri-state area where OH, WV, & KY borders meet). I recently found a bright yellow egg in my driveway, which is paved with small rocks/gravel. It was perfectly round (looked very similar to the round brightly colored gum balls found in the quarter machines) and about the same size as a bubble gum ball - no bigger around than a quarter. When I bent to pick it up, I was surprised that it was stuck to a small rock with a very tiny white fuzzy thing - so attached that when I picked up the egg, the rock came with it. It felt like leather - certainly not a bird egg with a hard shell, so I'm assuming it was reptile - probably snake. I looked around to see if I could find more, but couldn't find any.

I'm very curious. I thought reptiles laid their eggs in dirt and then buried them for incubation, and there are always more than just one. I also thought most snake eggs are white, cream or gray in color. It's mid-August and it's been incredibly hot here...high 90's most every day. We also have drought conditions...unusual for the Ohio River valley area.

Sorry to say that I don't have a picture to send. When I showed it to a friend, they squeezed too hard and it ruptured - much to my dismay.

I have a small ring neck snake that lives under some plywood I have stored along the fence line, very near to where I found the egg. Not sure if this is relevant, but thought it may be useful info. I also have 2 small creeks on the property, but they are not near my driveway. I live way out in the country and see a lot of interesting critters but this egg has me stumped!

Any help you can give with identifying this bright yellow leathery egg is most appreciated.

Thank you,

Sherry Henry

State: West Virginia

Habitat: forest/open woods

A: Thank you so much for a great description of your find! Most helpful. I have an immediate thought as to what you have but can't be entirely sure. It sounds to me that you do indeed have a reptile egg (leathery shell) but the color doesn't make sense until you mentioned the egg stuck to the rock. I think this is an egg that had already been cracked (broken open) and there was some yolk on the egg shell that seeped out to color it. Probably some of the egg oozed out and that is why is was stuck to the rock. Maybe a day or so afterward allowed some kind of fungus to grow on the egg.

I'm guessing this was a turtle egg and a snapper is what comes to mind with a round egg. Their eggs are round, leathery and white or pale cream colored. Snappers often crawl long distances from water to lay their eggs. Although snappers do indeed bury their eggs, if an animal dug it up, this may be why you found the egg on the surface. I can't be sure about this but I know of no eggs that would be yellow as you described. Hope this helps you out. You might want to google snapper eggs and see if they look like what you found - minus the yellow coloring.

Thanks for asking.

John Wiessinger ( August 17, 2007)