Parental investment by skin feeding in a caecilian amphibian
Parental investment by skin feeding in a caecilian amphibian
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Publisher
London: Nature Publishing Group UK
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Language
English
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Publisher
London: Nature Publishing Group UK
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Yummy mummy
A highly unusual form of parental care has been identified in a mysterious group of tropical vertebrates. In the oviparous amphibian
Boulengerula taitanus
, the young use specialized teeth to peel and eat the outer layer of their mother's modified skin, thereby ensuring a good start in life. This bizarre behaviour can be seen as an evolutionary link paving the way for fetal feeding on the oviduct lining of related viviparous amphibians. The movies, in the Supplementary Information on
http://www.nature.com
, are pretty gory.
Although the initial growth and development of most multicellular animals depends on the provision of yolk, there are many varied contrivances by which animals provide additional or alternative investment in their offspring
1
. Providing offspring with additional nutrition should be favoured by natural selection...
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Full title
Parental investment by skin feeding in a caecilian amphibian
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TN_cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_67858957
Permalink
https://devfeature-collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/TN_cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_67858957
Other Identifiers
ISSN
0028-0836
E-ISSN
1476-4687,1476-4679
DOI
10.1038/nature04403
