This Indonesian frog is unique in more ways than one; it not only has fangs, but it lays fully formed tadpoles instead of eggs like almost every other frog.
Limnonectes  larvaepartus is very tiny  at only about 1.5 inches long and weighs less than five grams. Males have two fang-like projections from their lower jaw that is used for fighting, while females were recently found to give birth to tadpoles.
“Reproduction in most frogs could not be more different from human reproduction. In this case, what is most interesting, ironically, is that reproductive mode is more similar to our own,†said herpetologist (biologist who specializes in amphibians and reptiles) Jimmy McGuire of the University of California, Berkeley.
Tadpoles are young amphibians that live in the water. They are not yet a fully formed frog or toad, but are too large to remain in an egg. They start out looking more like a fish because their long flat tail, but slowly grow limbs (usually the legs, then arms), and, eventually, the tail cells stop growing.
All known species of frogs except L. Larvaepartus either give birth to fertilized eggs or froglets, essentially tiny versions of adult’s frogs that passed through the tadpole state while still in an egg inside its mother.
Some male frogs even keep their eggs in their vocal sac, and some species carry tadpoles in pouches on their back and sides! What seems like a “normal†way of giving birth us is clearly very unusual in the amphibian world.
“It’s totally unclear why this mode of reproduction has not evolved more frequently,†said McGuire. “Frogs exhibit all sorts of interesting twists.â€
(Inputs from agencies)
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