Researchers Discover Amphibian Species that Peel and Eat their Mother's Skin

Researchers have discovered a kind of amphibian that eats its mother's skin. The animal belongs to an order called caecilian, which are amphibians that look like worms.

The new species of the skin eating amphibians is named Microcaecilia dermatophaga, according to PlanetEarth.com. The peeling of skin doesn't kill the mother as it is an extra layer of skin that the mothers have grown to feed the young ones.

Researchers say that the caecilians are close to 250 million years old.

"What we've found is another species that's a skin-feeder, but most importantly, it's another species that's quite distantly related to other skin-feeders we've found, meaning that skin-feeding is probably an ancestral characteristic for caecilians," said Dr Emma Sherratt from Harvard University, according to PlanetEarth.com.

The Caecilians can easily be misunderstood for being worms or snakes as they don't have any legs and a slippery body. However, they are amphibians like toads and frogs. Since, they mostly live underground in tropical rainforests, they are difficult to study.

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http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/1039/20130327/researchers-discover-amphibian-species-peel-eat-mothers-skin.htm