Toad's strange style of raising young

The Surinam Toad or Pipa pipa is a species of frog in the Pipidae family. It is usually found in northern South America. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, swamps, freshwater marshes. These frogs are almost exclusively aquatic. The appearance of the toad is somewhat like a leaf. It is almost completely flat, and colored in a mottled brown. Feet are broadly webbed while the fronts has E.T. like fingers. These quadripartite fingertips are one of the characteristics that distinguish Pipa pipa from other species. They usually grow to about 4-6 inches.

What's bizarre is their remarkable reproductive habit and method. Mating begins when the male makes a tickling call while in the water. The male will grasps the female from above and around the waist in inguinal amplexus. The female then initiates vertical circular turnovers while they're together. The male clasps the female with his forelimbs wrapped in front of her hindlimbs, and they raise off the floor of the stream or pond and swim to the surface of the water to get air. At the top of the arc, they flip, now floating on their backs, and the female releases 3-10 eggs which fall onto the male's belly. Completing their arc, they flip to their original position, bellies to the ground. The male now loosens his grip and permits the eggs to roll onto her back while he simultaneously fertilizes them. This spawning ritual is repeated 15-18 times. Roughly 100 eggs are laid and fertilized.

Amazingly, the eggs sticks only to the female's back, possibly due to a cloacal secretion. They do not stick to the male's belly nor to other eggs already on the female's back. Hours after fertilization, the eggs will sink into the female's skin. Skin grows around the eggs, which become enclosed in a cyst with a horny lid. During development, the young grow temporary tails, which are apparently used in the uptake of oxygen. After 12-20 weeks, the young eventually emerge from the mother's back at the time of molting, that is, when the mother sheds her skin. By now, they're fully developed, each about an inch long. They don't have to live as a tadpole in the outside world just as other frogs/toads does, thus increased their chances or survival! Truly unbelievable.


Source : http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu

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