Origins

The University of Cambridge’s zoology museum has come across a long-forgotten egg that Charles Darwin collected during his famous voyage on the Beagle. The 4.7-centimeter-long egg (left), from a partridge-like bird, is cracked: “The great man put it into too small a box, and hence its unhappy state,” according to records found with it.

“It’s the only egg that we know for sure was collected by Darwin,” even though he collected eggs and nests from at least 16 types of birds on his travels, says museum Director Michael Akam.

A museum volunteer rediscovered the egg while cataloging the museum’s egg collection, which has lain uninventoried for a century. It was in a collection belonging to Alfred Newton, a zoologist and friend of Darwin’s, who noted in his journal: “One egg, received through [Darwin's son] Frank Darwin, having been sent to me by his father who said he got it at Maldonado [now in Uruguay] and that it belonged to the Common Tinamou [now the spotted nothura, Nothura maculosasa] of those parts.”

“This is an extremely interesting and significant ornithological find,” says Douglas Russell, bird curator at the Natural History Museum in London. It should encourage other researchers "looking for famous missing specimens."

—Claire Thomas

Photo Credit: University Museum of Zoology Cambridge