Skin eating Caecilians: behind the scenes with the Scientists

The image below is a close-up of the tooth of a Caecilian, specially adapted for peeling the mother's skin, discovered by Natural History Museum scientists in 2006, and filmed for Life in Cold Blood. Watch the original scientific footage on the Natural History Museums website.

clipped from www.nhm.ac.uk Close up of grappling hook teeth of young amphibian caecilian that they use to eat their mother's skin. © The Natural History Museum/Alexander Kupfer A remarkable form of parental care, where young amphibians feed on their mother's skin, is revealed today in the journal Nature. The species is called Boulengerula taitanus. The females transform their outer skin into a thick, nutrient-rich meal for their babies. The young crawl over their mother and peel and eat the skin with their specialised teeth. This highly unusual method of parental care is called dermatotropy and was previously unknown in animals. 'That this amazing behaviour has never been seen before shows how much we still have to learn about the diversity of these animals,' said Mark Wilkinson, zoologist at the Museum. Caecilians are snake-like amphibians related to frogs and newts. They mostly burrow in tropical soil and their underground behaviour is rarely seen. B. taitanus is from Kenya and can grow up to 30cm long.