Brazilian researchers conducted a study and stumbled upon a unique species of caecilians.
Caecilians are a family of limbless amphibians. These creatures resemble large earthworms, but they primarily inhabit tropical regions of America, Asia, and Africa. They prefer to live in soil or decaying wood, and are sometimes found in termite mounds and ant hills. The uniqueness of the recently discovered species lies in the fact that they feed their newborns with milk secreted from their cloaca. This is reported by the journal Science.
Caecilians differ from other amphibians in that they do not rely on water bodies. Their eggs are laid in the soil. Scientists established as early as the 2000s that the young are born with teeth. During the first week, they feed on the outer layer of their mother's skin, which is rich in nutrients. This surprised researchers, as they require more food.
Brazilian scientists decided to test or refute the existing theory. To do this, they collected sixteen specimens of Siphonops annulatus in the Atlantic Forest and placed them in conditions as close as possible to their natural habitat. Over the course of two hundred hours, they recorded video to closely study their feeding habits.
The study revealed that caecilians do not only feed on their mother's skin. They produce characteristic clicking sounds, which leads to the secretion of a special fluid containing carbohydrates and fats. The equivalent of mammalian milk is secreted from the caecilian's cloaca, which is the anus that serves as the exit for the digestive and reproductive systems. The young fully immerse themselves in the cloaca to feed. Thus, caecilians have a unique ability to produce milk.
