Читать книгу Extreme Nature - Mark Carwardine - Страница 14

NAME	holy-cross, crucifix or Catholic toad Notaden bennetti
LOCATION	Australia
ABILITY	producing a super ‘superglue’

© Ken Griffiths/ANTphoto.com

Some of the world’s strangest creatures are found in Australia – a continent of extremes giving rise to extreme adaptations. The holy-cross toad lives where many other amphibians can’t: in hot, harsh areas inland, where droughts may last for several years. It uses its strong back legs to burrow down in the soil, where it sits out the heat of the day, and when drought sets in, it survives by digging a chamber a metre or so underground in which it aestivates (becomes dormant), emerging only when the rains return.

Like its close toad relatives, the holy-cross also has unique glands in its skin. If it is disturbed or distressed, these release a special secretion that turns into glue. The glue hardens in seconds and has a tensile strength five times that of other natural glues. This is particularly useful should ants attack, as even the biggest immediately get stuck to the toad’s skin. And since, like all frogs and toads, it sheds its skin and eats it about once a week, the holy-cross toad has the pleasure of swallowing the ants that attack it.

Scientists in Australia are now trying to produce an artificial glue as good as the toad’s. Holy-cross toad glue will stick plastic, glass, cardboard and even metal together. More importantly, it can repair splits in cartilage and other body tissues and therefore might prove to be a miracle adhesive that will help surgeons repair the most difficult of injuries.