Rhinoderma Darwin - the most caring dad in the world (5 photos + 1 video)

So we constantly talk about how caring mothers are in nature. How they spend time caring for, protecting and teaching survival skills to their offspring. It’s even somehow insulting for the fathers. Moreover, there are fathers who are worth ten of the most caring mothers.





We are talking about a tailless amphibian called Darwin's rhinoderma. This creature received its proud name in honor of the great scientist who, in fact, discovered it in the foothills of the Andes.



With the arrival of winter, these inhabitants of Chile begin a crucial period - reproduction. Frog eggs are laid exclusively on land. Actually, this is where the female’s participation in the process ends. Leaving the bewildered guy over a pile of eggs, she jumps off somewhere, definitely not promising to return.





The male fertilizes the future offspring, because of which, in fact, everything was started (and where to go?) and begins packaging. Obviously, in a dry environment, the delicate eggs will soon dry out. Therefore, they should be placed in a damp place. And the closest such is the organism of the male Rhinoderma Darwin himself. More precisely, part of the body is the throat pouch.



It is quite short and narrow. And at first no more than two eggs fit there. But the stubborn frog does not give up and pushes the next ones inside. As the offspring grow, this organ stretches so much in all directions that it reaches the abdomen, sides, and in some cases of large families, even the back.

For the first 10-14 days, the eggs are arranged in a chaotic manner. Then the yolk supply comes to an end, and the future frogs are unanimously divided into two layers, turn their backs to the walls of the bag and... carefully grow to it, first with their tails and then with their backs.



The second stage of development occurs by receiving nutrients from the father himself. The walls of the sac are permeated with blood vessels. And the upper part of the epidermis on baby blanks, which could complicate absorption, is absent. And the baby frogs literally suck all the juices out of their dad until they reach the stage of the disappearance of the caudal fin.

After this, the frogs regurgitate their offspring, which gradually fall off. And it jumps into a happy independent future. Having spat out the last frog, the male, who has reached the penultimate stage of exhaustion, goes off to rest and recuperate with a sense of accomplishment. Until winter, until another pretty, flighty lady catches the eye of a caring dad.