Hazrat Ali-The Door of Knowledge (merged)
Hazrat Ali was once challenged with a question.
"Which animals lay eggs and which give birth to their live young" to which he replied as per tradition,
"All the animals with their ears out (external ears) give birth to thier live youngs and all animals with their ears inside (no external ears) lay eggs".
Now though there is no relationship between reproductive methods Vivipary (giving birth to live youngs) & Ovipary (laying eggs) and external or internal ears as per science, the answer was meant for the understanding of the common man of that era and hence an excellent summary. However there are few factual errors which i want to enumerate below.
The first part of the statement is absolutely true as only Mammals have external ears (less monotromes) and less monotromes all mammals employ vivipary for reproduction, however the second part is not true as many sharks, snakes, some lizards, cockroaches and even flies like Tse-Tse employ vivipary though they have no external ears.
I assume that probably he replied giving only the first part and second was added by some one afterwards assuming that the reverse must be true as according to Hadith Ali is the door of Knoweldge and it cannot be assumed that he did not know it if we believe Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H). Can any one please refer to the exact place from where this saying has come and its authenticity