There are many magical things happening in nature every day, but being able to eat your own children is also a strange existence in the magic. The stomach-broodstock toad is such a strange existence that it swallows the eggs into the stomach after laying its eggs – of course, not really eating, but incubating in the stomach, ripening and spitting out of its mouth.
The mother's mouth is a mature small stomach yuxi toad. (Photo: Professor Mike Tyler / University of Adelaide)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > introduction to the gastric yuxi toad</h1>
This amazing animal was only discovered in 1972, and the last reared gastric toad died in 1983, and since then the gastric toad has gone extinct.
According to records, the gastropod toad mainly lives in rainforests, moist sclerophyll forests and near rivers. Like other frogs, they prefer to live in the water, sometimes frolicking in nearby rocks or grass, only to be fully present during rain.
The stomach brook toad is naturally "lazy", whether it is foraging or other activities, never leaving the water's edge more than 4 meters. Studies have shown that only 2 of the 10 young frogs move more than 3 meters and will stay in place "motionless" unless necessary.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > special "gastric" approach</h1>
The most special thing about gastric brook toads is the way they incubate their young frogs. After IVF, the female frog swallows her eggs and incubates them in the stomach.
Female frogs can lay about 40 eggs at a time, with eggs up to 5.1 mm in diameter and large yolks. However, there are only 21 to 26 young frogs that can actually be born in the stomach of female frogs, which may be that the female frogs have not swallowed all the eggs, or some of the eggs will be digested after just swallowing.
Why are the eggs of the gastric brook toad not digested in the stomach of the female frog? Studies have found that the outer periphery of the eggs of the gastric Yuxi toad is wrapped in a gelatin called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which can make the stomach suspend the secretion of hydrochloric acid, providing enough time for the embryo of the egg to develop. When the egg develops into a tadpole, the tadpole's gills secrete mucus that also contains PGE2.
When an embryo or juvenile frog is in the mother's body, the female frog does not eat. The tadpole in the mother takes at least 6 weeks to develop, during which time the female frog's stomach expands until it can accommodate all the young frogs, while the female frog's lungs are significantly reduced, and breathing is mainly based on the skin for gas exchange. In addition, the female frog will try to stay still, reduce the damage to the young frog, but also reduce their energy consumption.
After the young frogs mature, they will gradually emerge from the female frog's mouth, and the birth process will last up to a week. If the female frog is harassed during this period, it may also spit out all the young frogs.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > is it possible for the stomach toad to be resurrected? </h1>
Using current technological means to "reappear" extinct animals has always been the dream of many biologists. Michael Archer's research group at the University of New South Wales in Australia has been working on this scientific study. They extracted DNA from preserved gastric toad tissue and then used a large frog egg cell related to the gastric yuxi toad to insert DNA into hundreds of large frog egg cells (the DNA in the eggs of large frogs has been predetermined) for incubation.
In 2013, this technology made a key breakthrough, the egg cells containing the DNA of the gastric Yuxi toad began to divide, forming an early embryo, and scientists also confirmed that this embryo contained the DNA of the gastric Yuxi toad, and the stomach Yuxi toad, which had been silent for 30 years, once again gained life!
Unfortunately, the embryo did not develop into a tadpole, and the embryo only survived for a few days. The technology for resurrecting extinct species is not so simple, but it is already a major breakthrough.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summary:</h1>
Incubating offspring from the stomach is a magical existence, but unfortunately the gastric breeding brook toad has long been extinct, and this magical phenomenon has disappeared. The rapid development of modern biotechnology is not entirely impossible to use biological means to revive extinct animals, and the preliminary experimental results of the resurrection of the gastric Yuxi toad also prove the feasibility of the experiment. If one day, as described in Jurassic Park, technology could bring dinosaurs back to life, would you support the technology? #科学在身边 #
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