The Frog That Used Its Stomach As A Nursery

Most frogs lay eggs in water, but this extinct Australian species turned its own stomach into a womb. The mother would swallow her fertilized eggs, completely shutting down her digestive juices to let her babies develop inside her.

This extraordinary reproductive process meant the mother had to stop eating for weeks while her stomach functioned as a nursery. Eventually, she would literally vomit up her fully formed froglets once they were ready for the world. Sadly, both species of these gastric-brooding frogs vanished from the wild by the late 1980s. Scientists remain fascinated by how they managed to chemically disable their own acid to protect their developing young.