Midwife toad

Fossils suggest that midwife toads were once widespread on Majorca and Menorca, but disappeared from lowlands of the former and entirely from the latter island several thousand years ago and coincident with the fossil appearance of the snake Natrix maura and the large frog Rana perezi.

A key preserved male specimen of the midwife toad was eventually shown to have been injected with India ink in the region of the normally pigmented nuptial pad.

The midwife toad is a slow-moving, terrestrial amphibian represented by four species of the genus Alytes (family Discoglossidae). The best-known species is A. obstetricans.