Frog

Adorable! Surinam toads of the family Pipidae have a broad, flat shape and leaf-like appearance, but who cares about that...? They embed fertilized eggs in the mother's back from whence the babies emerge! Adorable? Horrifying? What was your reaction to the movie Alien? Damn... it looks like Pharyngula beat us to the punch. Whatevs... Surinam Toad stays.
Deep in the heart of the jungles of Borneo a new frog has been found that is rocking the very foundations of frog biology the world over. Why? Because, for God's sake, it has no lungs. Instead, it gets all the oxygen it needs by absorbing it through its skin. Can you do me a favor real quick and blow cigarette smoke on me. The frog- Barbourula kalimantanensis -was actually discovered 30 years ago, but only one known specimen had been collected, and no one thought to dissect it. The speedy, little, two inch-long, creatures proved... ...very difficult to find and catch. With a team of eleven…
The invasion of land by the tetrapods - four-limbed animals that include mammals, reptiles and amphibians - was surely one of the most evocative events in animal evolution. The march onto terra firma began some 365 million years ago and was driven by a suite of innovative adaptations that allowed back-boned animals to live out of water. Lungs were among the most crucial of these for they allowed the first land-lubbers to extract oxygen from the surrounding air. That ability is so important that it's rare for tetrapods to lose their lungs completely. Until now, the only groups that we know…
Scientists in Madagascar recently discovered the remains of a giant prehistoric frog, a relative of today's horned toads, which blew away the previous record for the largest known frog, Bennicus Bleimanicus. Dubbed Beelzebufo, meaning "frog from hell," the Devil Frog had important differences from today's frogs. To begin with, it was freakin huge. Susan Evans, a researcher from the University College of London, explained that if it was anything like its closest living forebears, "it would have been quite mean." Considering the fact that it was "the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball,…
tags: amphibian, African reed frog, Hyperolius marmoratus, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife African reed frog, Hyperolius marmoratus, as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C) at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash). Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size]. Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
An international consortium of zoos, aquariums, conservation organizations and scientists, calling itself the "Amphibian Ark," has dubbed 2008 the "Year of the Frog." Amphibian Ark made the declaration in order to draw awareness to the mass extinction of amphibian species around the globe and to infuriate the Chinese, who already named the year after the rat "like 5000 years ago". The AArk is a joint effort of 3 principal partners: the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), the IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG), and the IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG…
tags: frog, amphibians, calla lily, National Geographic, Image of the Day Frog in Calla Lily. I was out with the camera after a passing thunderstorm. As I was photographing a group of calla lilies, I happened upon this little guy nestled comfortably in one, taking shelter from the rain. Image: Sainath Kamath 2007 (photo appears here with permission by National Geographic). [larger view].
Those crazy Japanese have done it again! By combining two types of recessive genes that cause frogs to be pale, they have created a frog with almost transparent skin. Unfortunately for the frogs, the advantages to testing on a see-through critter are numerous. For example, "You can see through the skin how organs grow, how cancer starts and develops," explained the lead researcher Masayuki Sumida, professor at the Institute for Amphibian Biology of state-run Hiroshima University. "You can watch organs of the same frog over its entire life as you don't have to dissect it. The researcher can…
Hey there, ladies. I'm just a lonesome, evolutionary mishap who loves to party. The Purple frog or Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis can be described as a "living fossil." These strange creatures split evolutionarily from other frogs nearly 150 million years ago giving them features unique to any amphibian, so unique in fact that they have been put in their own taxonomic family. Purple frogs were officially discovered by scientists in 2003 in the hilly jungles of Western India. Making them particularly difficult to locate is their propensity for burrowing deep in the jungle floor and only…
A team of Florida International University zoologists studying poison arrow frogs in South America have identified the source of the colorful critters' toxicity. Researchers have long known that the amphibians do not produce the toxic compounds, alkaloids, themselves, but were uncertain of their origins. The FIU team discovered that the frogs were eating tiny oribatid mites that are abundant in decaying plant matter. Analysis of the mites determined over 80 types of alkaloids present in their tiny bodies, explaining the source of the frogs' defense.Come on... just one quick taste... all the…