A headless toad has been found in a state forest that baffled researchers because it has no face.
A state forest in Connecticut was home for an adult headless American toad that was found hopping around and running into different objects because it has no eyes. The toad with no eyes, nose, jaw and tongue was noticed by a herpetologist Jill Fleming when the toad hopped around the researchers’ feet.
According to Yahoo News, the toad had skin covered with a tiny slit in place of its head. Initially been discovered back in 2016, Fleming again took to social media site Twitter recently when she failed to reach a solution of the headless toad’s mystery. She wrote, “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)?”
Found the video. pic.twitter.com/cZJhDWEzOm
— Jill Fleming (@salamander_jill) February 27, 2018
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Fleming couldn’t figure out the reason why the toad’s head was missing but, gave few probable explanations. She told National Geographic, “My initial thought, which I still believe is a likely explanation, was that the extensive injury was inflicted by one of the toad’s many natural predators during hibernation (for example, garter snakes or American mink). For whatever reason, the predator did not finish the job and the toad was able to become active again on that early spring day — amphibians are incredibly resilient.”
Few other scientists replied to Fleming’s tweet predicting that this might be due to parasitic toad fly that ate its head from the inside. However, Fleming doesn’t think so, “I believe the injury happened during hibernation because it seemed to have healed over, which I don't think it would have the opportunity to have done outside the toad's hibernacula.”
Unfortunately, Fleming predicted that because of the toad’s severe condition, it probably wouldn’t have survived for long since its lack of mouth wouldn’t have let it eat. “It would not have been able to eat in this condition and was an easy target for predators.”