Although the amphibian Xenopus laevis produces antibodies as diversified as those from mammals in the primary repertoire, antibody affinity maturation after immunization is relatively poor and has been associated with a poor B cell selection of AID-mediated hypermutations and lack of germinal centers in the spleen, the only secondary lymphoid organ of this amphibian. In this issue of the European Journal of Immunology, Neely et al., [Eur. J. Immunol. 2018. 48: 430-440] have unveiled the role of distinctive dendritic cell (DC) subset, XL cells, which have the capacity to acquire and retain native antigens for B cell maturation. The complementary evidence presented by this study (immunohistology, tracing antigen complexes, flow cytometry analysis and gene expression profiles of sorted XL cells) provides novel fundamental insights into a major evolutionary step in functional and cellular specialization of DC and follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) in regulating B cell responses.