The Suriname toad is flat — really flat — almost like someone sat on it. It has no tongue and no teeth, which makes it different from most other toads. Instead it uses its star-shaped, super-sensitive fingertips to feel for small fish and worms in murky water. It then scoops its prey straight into its mouth with its front feet.
The way it raises babies is what makes it truly extraordinary. The male presses eggs into the female's soft back during a remarkable underwater somersault. The skin grows over the eggs, forming individual pockets — like a living honeycomb. The embryos develop through the tadpole stage inside those pockets and hatch out as fully formed tiny toads about 3 to 4 months later.
When the babies emerge, they push through the skin one by one — each one a perfect tiny toad immediately ready to swim and hunt. After all the babies have left, the mother sheds the used layer of skin and it grows back fresh. Scientists find this animal remarkable because it shows how many unusual ways life can find to raise young.