Ontario, 1992 — In what may be one of the most startling photographic discoveries of the 20th century, Canadian photographer Scott Gardner captured an Ontario toad whose eyes appeared not on its head, but tucked inside its open mouth. The uncanny image, first printed in a local nature magazine, rippled through scientific circles and later found its way into Richard Dawkins’s acclaimed book Climbing Mount Improbable.

Gardner, on assignment near Algonquin Provincial Park, recounts the moment of discovery: “I trained my lens on a common eastern toad—only to see its throat moving as though it were blinking. At first I thought it was the wind, but each shutter click revealed two bright, beady eyes peering from the creature’s gullet.”

Amphibian developmental biologists call such an extreme form of ocular heterotopia exceptionally rare. Dr. Maeve Sinclair of the University of Toronto, who later examined Gardner’s prints, explains: “Eye formation in toads generally follows a highly conserved embryonic pathway, so finding photoreceptive organs displaced in the mouth suggests a profound—but poorly understood—disruption of early tissue migration.”

Environmental stressors may play a role. The early 1990s saw significant shifts in local water pH and increased exposure to agricultural runoff. “We know amphibians are sensitive indicators of ecosystem health,” notes Dr. Sinclair. “Minor changes in their breeding ponds can trigger major developmental surprises—from extra limbs to, in this case, fantastical eye placement.”

Dawkins seized upon Gardner’s photograph to illustrate evolution’s capacity for both creativity and error. In the chapter “Mount Improbable,” he writes: “Natural selection can sculpt wonders—but the raw material of life, shaped under imperfect conditions, occasionally yields forms so strange they defy our expectations.”

Today, Gardner’s snapshot remains a visual touchstone for evolutionary biologists and a reminder that nature’s workshop sometimes delivers anomalies as curious as they are instructive. As habitats continue to change, who knows what other marvels—and mysteries—await discovery?