A female caecilian and her flesh-eating offspring
There isn’t much a mother wouldn’t give her children, and for caecilians – worm-like amphibians – that includes their own flesh. Once a caecilian mother has laid her eggs she secretes a fatty, nutrient-rich layer of skin around her body. When the young, limbless amphibians hatch from their eggs, they begin to chow down on their mother’s skin. Young caecilians are born with shovel-like teeth that can scrape away at each layer of skin that the mother produces for up to three months. Studies have shown that a caecilian mother will lose around one-seventh of her body weight during the feeding period, which researchers found in the stomachs of her young.