There's a toad that carries its eggs on its back

Talk about back-breaking parenting.

We know there used to be a frog that incubated its eggs inside their stomach, then vomited its babies out.

Well, there’s also a toad that does something relatively similar albeit not as crazy. This time, the toad incubates its eggs on its back.

There’s a toad that incubates its eggs on its back. Photo by Laurence on Unsplash

The Surinam toad is a unique amphibian found in the tropical rainforest of South America. They’re known for their distinctive appearance of a broad, flattened body with a triangular head. Their bodies are so flat, it seriously looks like they’re dead (at least I think so). Combined with the fact that they’re these brownish toads that resembles a leaf, they’re adept at camouflaging in their natural environment.

But they’re body shape is not the most interesting part about them.

It’s their unconventional method of reproduction.

While Surinam toads look weird as fuck, it’s their reproductive strategy that makes them even weirder. Photo by Hugo Claessen on Wikimedia Commons.

Unlike most amphibians, which lay eggs in water and leave them to develop independently, the Surinam toad takes a more hands-on approach to parenting.

During the breeding season, males make a clicking sound underwater to call to the females. A female receptive to his call will release 60 to 100 eggs. The male will fertilise those eggs, then pushes the eggs onto the female’s back where they become embedded in her skin.

A thick layer of skin will grow over the eggs, forming pockets that eventually enclose the eggs. The resulting structure is a protective, honey-comb layer that shields the eggs from external threats.

The Surinam toad carries the eggs on its back for several weeks, during which time the embryos develop into tadpoles. Once they develop into tiny toads, they’ll burst out of their chambers on their mother’s back.

The Surinam toad embeds all her eggs on her back, forming a honeycomb structure. She carries them for several weeks until they hatch into mini toads. It looks so weird doesn’t it? Photo by Dein Freund der Baum on Wikimedia Commons.

After all of her toads have left, the female sheds her damaged skin and grows a new skin year ready for the next breeding season.

So, to summarise, the Surinam toads carries up to 100 babies on her back. Then she regrows her skin because her skin gets damaged in the process. That’s pretty cool and takes reproduction to a whole new level.

But as cool as it is, I’m glad I’m not a Surinam toad.