Scientists discover a snake-like amphibian that produces milk for its young

As per new evidence, mammals are not the only type of animals that produce milk, one amphibian that looks more like a worm also exhibits this behaviour.

Caecilians, a type of amphibian—like frogs and salamanders — are limbless creatures that release a milk-like substance for their young.

Full of surprises

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As per a new study published on Thursday (Mar 7), Caecilians are full of surprises.

The paper explains that in a manner somewhat similar to mammals, the ringed caecilian (Siphonops annulatus) produces a milk-like substance to feed their young.

Remarkably, the hungry hatchlings seem to beg their mother to release more milk—a type of behaviour that has never been observed in amphibians before.

How was this discovery made?

A BBC series Life in Cold Blood gets the credit for this discovery. Using an endoscopic camera, the team filming this show captured a ringed caecilian female and her offspring.

They observed the offspring getting into a frenzy of sorts at one point. This was a feeding frenzy, where the young ones tore at their mother's whitish outer skin layer that was only there in breeding females.

Scientists discovered that the skin was extremely nutritious and had proteins and fats.

"We were so intrigued by this that we didn't pay much attention to the other behaviours we saw," said study co-author Marta Antoniazzi of the Butantan Institute.

However, over time, they realised that one mouthful of the nutritious skin can't sustain the caecilian offspring for long. This made them focus on another phenomenon.

"The babies' heads were close to the female’s cloacal opening all the time," says study co-author herpetologist Carlos Jared of the Butantan Institute in Brazil.

"Some even put their heads inside and seemed very excited," he added.

Comparing the intestines, bladders, cloacae, and oviducts of females with and without offspring, study co-author Pedro Mailho-Fontana of the Butantan Institute found that some large oviducts produce a milky substance that is rich in sugars and fatty acids. This also occurs in humans and cows.

Similar to mammals, young caecilians also seemed to have a method to encourage their mothers to release the milk.

"This behaviour seems akin to begging in birds, which, to my knowledge, had not been documented in caecilians before," says herpetologist Marcel Kouete of the Florida Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the study but also works on caecilians. "This is pretty cool to learn," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)