Credits: Jill Fleming / Twitter
An adult toad found in a Connecticut forest recently shocked researchers when they realized he was crawling without a face. Yes, just a toad without a head: No eyes, no nostrils, no jaw, no tongue. But how does he survive?
The photos and video of the amphibian, posted on the Twitter account of American herpetologist Jill Fleming, are surprising. On these images, published on February 27th, Jill Fleming reveals a toad - Anaxyrus americanus - without a head, and without any sign of an open wound. The amphibian seems perfectly healthy. On the video, we can see it evolve in nature as if nothing had happened. Discovered in a Connecticut forest in April 2016 by the scientist, he has "a small hole as a mouth", a remnant of his former oral cavity, reports the site Mashable .
But how did the animal become like that and survive? For Jill Flemming, it is possible that the malformation of this specimen is due to its misting, the name given to the period of hibernation of reptiles. The toad's head may have been devoured by larvae of flesh-eating flies, called Lucilia bufonivora . The injury could also have been inflicted by one of the many natural predators of the toad during the mating, such as American snakes or mink. For some reason, the predator would not have finished the job and the toad could become active again in early spring - the amphibians are incredibly resilient.
If the toad was wounded just before or during the brum, the traumatic injury would have had plenty of time to heal. If the toad had been active at that time, the story could have been very different. The cases of headless animals surviving for a certain time are certainly rare, but exist. The proof :
Still puzzled by this find from 2016! An apparently “faceless” toad. Kept hopping into things. Had a small mouth hole- maybe esphogus/glottis (no maxilla or mandible, I think)? It was early spring so I think it must have come out of brumation like this. Any thoughts herp Twitter? pic.twitter.com/bFSLlakhs1
Found the video. pic.twitter.com/cZJhDWEzOm
