This curious creature is an egg-cellent example of a devoted family man.

The male Midwife Toad carries fertilised eggs on its back until they are ready to hatch. It is one of the weird wonders of nature included in a new book which claims to be a guide to “everything on earth”.

Other curious creations within its pages include the Australian Weedy Seadragon and a very smelly, very toxic and distinctly odd-looking mushroom called the Stinkhorn.

More than 20 wildlife experts got together to choose the 5,000 plants, animals, fossils and fungi which feature in the book. Naturalist Amy-Jane Beer, who was a contributor to the book, said: “I think it is a way of trying to encapsulate the whole of the diversity of life in one book.”