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Amphibian 'worms' feed young their own flesh

Baby caecilians scrape the fatty skin from their mum's back.

How far would you go to feed your kids? Mothers of some worm-like amphibians called caecilians literally give a piece of themselves, by allowing their young to eat their flesh.

Read the story here.

Posted by Nicola Jones on April 12, 2006 05:46 PM |

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Comments

If human babies were born with teeth, human moms would not have to visit gyms to shed weight post pregnancy. The baby would simply eat up the fatty nutritous layer, while the mother can happily look forward to a `slim' future

Posted by: deb | April 13, 2006 05:08 PM

Just another way to feed the sibling-a smart one as there is no need of
milk-glands.

Posted by: m.s.grewal | April 14, 2006 10:30 AM

Just another way to feed the sibling - a smart one as there is no need of milk-glands.

Posted by: m.s.grewal | April 14, 2006 10:30 AM

It's bizarre!!!
Would this be considered as parental care? By feeding the young with the mom's flesh, it would promote the survival of the young (any experiment done to confirm this?). But what selection pressure had favored such a behavior?
Could the mother also benefit?

[Editor's note: our story on this paper does mention that it might be easier for the mothers to produce a nutrient-rich skin than to produce a bulky yolk in her eggs. The skin is also 're-usable' from one infant to another.]

Posted by: Guanyang, ZHANG | April 14, 2006 11:13 AM

There an interesting blog posted here on the same topic.

Posted by: Jaclyn Perrelli | April 17, 2006 08:19 PM

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