Gastric Brooding Frog, Extinct in 1983, Dedecus - Shame.

Etching 4.5" x 3.5", by Abigail Rorer

  • IMALlama@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    Rheobatrachus, whose members are known as the gastric-brooding frogs or platypus frogs, is a genus of extinct ground-dwelling frogs native to Queensland in eastern Australia. The genus consisted of only two species, the southern and northern gastric-brooding frogs, both of which became extinct in the mid-1980s. The genus is unique because it contains the only two known frog species that incubated the prejuvenile stages of their offspring in the stomach of the mother.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric-brooding_frog

    TIL. That’s pretty nuts

    • quinacridoneOPM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      Thanks for the informative link!

      Amphibians can be delightfully weird in their breeding habits, off the top of my head there’s the toad/frog that incubates their eggs on their back, with them hatching through the skin… I would find a link but I’m currently on mobile and also have sausage fingers

      Gestating in the stomach and giving ‘birth’ via the mouth is quite something though…evolution has produced some really interesting solutions to ensure reproductive success

      The gastric frog is part of a small series of extinct species including black rhino and dodo, which is depressing as it is artistic