Discovery

Babyphians

arindam | 09 Jun, 2009

Biologists have discovered an amphibian species, the first of its kind in Asia, which delivers live offspring rather than eggs.

Biologists are calling it a reproductive feat. They’ve discovered an amphibian species, the first of its kind in Asia, which delivers live offspring rather than eggs. While large reptiles like crocodiles still lay eggs, the sixinch female Gegeneophis seshachari, a limbless wormlike amphibian, has displayed enough reproductive power to hold up to four foetuses within her oviducts. The babyphians survived in utero by using specialised prebirth teeth to scrape at nutritional tissue.