Scientists bring back extinct mouth-birthing frog

According to reports scientists have resurrected a species of frog that gives birth from its mouth.

Rheobatrachus silus, the frog in question, is one of only two species of platypus frogs, both of which had gone extinct in the 1980s.

Gizmag reports that scientists working on the 'Lazarus Project' had found a sample of the frog's genetic material in a deep freeze from the 1970s.

The team implanted the cell nuclei from the sample into donor eggs from one of the frog's distant relative species, the great barred frog. Some of the cells began to divide and tests confirmed that they belonged to the formerly extinct species.

Platypus frogs were native to Queensland, and were the only known species of frog to incubate their pre-juvenile young in the stomachs of their mother. The jelly around the eggs had a hormone called prostaglandin E2, this told the stomach to stop producing acid. Once the eggs hatched the tadpoles also produced this substance.

Once the young frogs had matured enough, the female vomited them up.

You can read the full story on Gizmag.