Researchers have known that the naturalist collected 16 bird eggs during his trip between 1831 and 1836 but all were thought to be lost.
But one sample – that of the Tinamou bird of Uruguay – has been discovered by a volunteer as she catalogued a collection at the Zoology Museum.
The records seem to indicate that Darwin himself was responsible for damage caused to the heavily cracked egg after packing it in too small a box during or following his famous voyage.
The chocolate brown egg – slightly smaller than a hen’s egg – was among the museum’s 10,000 strong collection from Darwin being partly catalogued by volunteer Liz Wetton.
She has spent half a day at the Museum each week for the past ten years where she faithfully sorts and reboxes the Museum’s bird egg collection.
She merely commented that the specimen had C. Darwin written on it before moving to the next drawer.
