Plant lives inside animal: algae invade amphibian cells

Algae inside translucent salamander eggs (Image: PNAS) 

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.

Read the whole article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9446000/9446530.stm