What newborn animals eat their parents?
Some species of spider devour their mother as soon as they hatch, and a species of Brazilian caecilian (legless, burrowing amphibians that resemble worms) eat their mother’s skin. This does not kill her – after her skin has been devoured, the family rests for three days whilst she grows a new layer, which the young then proceed to eat, and so on. Some other caecilian species retain their eggs inside their bodies until the young hatch, where they feed on the lining of her oviduct in a similar fashion. They can remain inside her, feeding like this, for up to eleven months.
