Shape Quantization and the Estimation of Volume and Surface Area of Reptile Eggs

The shape of symmetrical reptile eggs is described in terms of the formulation of Preston (1974), using the parameters of length, width, and bicone. Formulae for estimating the volume and surface area are given, and some practical methods for determining the bicone are presented. The bicones of a sample of snake eggs were determined by photographing the eggs and digitizing the outlines, and regression lines of bicone versus elongation were obtained. It was found that the Preston formulation fitted snake eggs well, but no significant relationship between bicone and elongation was found for the sample of eggs.