Oviparous animals are animals that lay eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, reptiles, all birds, and the monotremes.

In traditional usage, most insects, molluscs, and arachnids are also described as oviparous; Thierry Lodé (2012), however, describes the mode of reproduction in these organisms as "ovuliparous".