(Photo: Screenshot, via ABC7)

In Florida, one morning earlier this week, a woman named Tammy was preparing an omelet, when she found something strange—a perfectly round egg. Steve Holloway, her boyfriend, was the first to hear about it. From ABC News:

“She came running into the living room and said ‘Look what I found!’” he said. “I thought she grabbed a golf ball out of my bag to play a trick on me.”

This is not the first perfectly round egg to be found. In 2010, a chef in England found a round egg while working morning shift. Back in March, a British woman named Kim Broughton discovered that one of her chickens had laid a perfectly round egg—it sold on eBay for more than $700. 

Round eggs are actually less well-suited for the world than egg-shaped eggs. As Mental Floss explains, ”If eggs were perfectly spherical, they would be more likely to roll out of a nest and break.” And eggs that aren’t egg-shaped aren’t necessarily a good thing: they’re associated with stress and overcrowding. 

The chances of finding a round egg are supposedly “one in a billion”—at least, that’s the number that’s cited in these round egg stories. If that’s true, these marvels should appear much more often: according to the American Egg Board, just in March 2015, “shell egg production” in the U.S. was 7.42 billion. But usually egg sorting machines keep the round eggs from reaching the public. Apparently the powers that be think we just can’t handle such mathematical perfection over breakfast.

Bonus finds: Hot lava flows, on Venus, creepy baseball statues

Every day, we highlight one newly lost or found object, curiosity or wonder. Discover something unusual or amazing? Tell us about it! Send your finds to [email protected]. 

 

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