Caecilian: "Yummy mummy"

Tiassa

Tiassa

Let us not launch the boat ...
Valued Senior Member
Source: BBC News Online
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7235205.stm
Title: "'Flesh-eating' amphibians filmed"
Date: February 9, 2008

Well, if this isn't just a bit macabre:

One of the strangest meal-times in the animal kingdom has been caught on film by a BBC crew.

The team recorded footage of a female worm-like amphibian, called a caecilian, allowing her young to peel off and eat her skin.

Scientists have only recently discovered this bizarre parental behaviour.

The female caecilian's skin becomes thicker and more nutrient-rich when she bears offspring.

And the young have specialised teeth for tearing and removing it ....

.... It took several attempts to capture the footage; the caecilian babies would only eat their mother's skin for about 10 minutes, once every three days, and often at night.

(BBC News)
Click to expand...

If only H.P. was alive. I wonder what he would have made of such behavior. Nonetheless, despite the initial sense of repugnance, it struck me that this is, in a way, no different than consuming mother's milk.

Well, in a way. Apparently the mother regrows her skin every three days; the feeding is not simple cannibalism, but a periodic dispensation of specific sustenance.

Absolutely wild.
 
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