Plant lives inside animal: algae invade amphibian cells

The salamander eggs appear green because of the algae inside

Researchers have discovered a unique and rather weird example of a plant living inside an animal.

A team from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, discovered that a green alga invades tiny developing salamander embryos.

This is the first documented case of a plant living in partnership, or symbiosis, with a vertebrate.

Even more strangely, the researchers think the salamanders might inherit the alga from their parents.

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.