rhamphotheca:

Hairy Frogs Have Unusual Defense Mechanism

by Weird Science

When I think about frogs, I usually picture the cute, little ones hopping around the lake near my house. Well, there are many types of frogs and one in particular is almost the stuff of nightmares! Not only is it a super duper hairy creature but it has a peculiar defense mechanism that has intrigued scientists.

Trichobatrachus robustus – as the frog is formally named – breaks its own bones to create special claws that force their way through the frog’s toe pads. It’s thought that this action is performed when the frog is threatened. While we already know that salamanders do something similar by pushing their ribs through the skin to create spiky barbs, the frog’s maneuver is unique! Not only that, but the closest action we’ve seen from other frogs involves bony spines that stick out from the wrist. The difference, however, is that the bones project out naturally, which is different from the hairy frog where the claws force their way out as a form of defense…

(read more: Weird Science)   (photo: Gustavo Carra)

rhamphotheca:

 Blue Mountains Tree Frog (Litoria citropa) in amplexus 

… a species of tree frog native to the coastal and highland areas of easternAustralia, from just south of Newcastle NSW, to eastern VIC. This species is associated with flowing rocky streams in woodland and wet or dry sclerophyll forest. This species has a two-part call, the first is a strong “warrrrrk” followed by a number a shorter notes, that sound like a golf ball going in a hole. Males call from streamside vegetation and rocks in the stream from spring to summer, normally after heavy rain. This species is often found in highland areas, especially the Blue Mountains, hence its name…

(read more: Wikipedia)     (photo: Froggydarb)

wildlifecollective:

Darwin’s Frog
Rhinoderma darwinii

Darwin’s frogs have a highly unusual method of brooding and rearing their young. The males have an enlarged vocal sac in which they brood their newly hatched tadpoles. The tadpoles remain there until they have developed into little froglets, when up to 20 are released by being spat out. Darwin’s frogs are also masters of disguise. When threatened, they roll over and play dead until the danger has passed, looking like dead leaves. They were discovered, as you may expect, by Charles Darwin in the forests of South America.

Facts | Photo © PhotoLibrary.com

rhamphotheca:

At the Edge of Invasion, Possible New Rules for Evolution

by Brandon Keim

Just as Galapagos finches are icons of evolution by natural selection, Australia’s cane toads may someday be icons of “spatial sorting” — a dynamic that seems to exist at the edges of invasion, altering the standard rules of evolution. Cane toads have evolved in odd ways Down Under. Adaptations that drove their dramatic spread made individual toads less reproductively fit. Evolution through natural selection of hereditary mutations still exists, but no longer appears driven by reproductive imperatives alone. It’s also shaped by speed.

“The possibility that some traits have evolved by ‘mating betwixt the quickest’ rather than ’survival of the fittest’ warrants further attention,” wrote biologists led by the University of Sydney’s Richard Shine in the March 21 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Introduced to northeast Australia 75 years ago in an ill-advised attempt at beetle control, cane toads spread like fire, their range expanding at rates that grew daily. As they first arrived at his study area, Shine noticed something strange: As expected, the toads displayed myriad adaptations — longer legs, greater endurance, a tendency to move faster and farther and straighter — that affected their ability to disperse, but dispersal’s benefits were unclear…

(read more: Wired Science)   (photo: Sam Fraser-Smith/Flickr)

rhamphotheca:

Newly Discovered Frogs, India:  Spinular Night Frog

by Christine Dell’Amore

Known from only a single area in Kerala state, the spinular night frog is also among the largest of its genus, reaching up to 2.6 in (6.6 cm). Its scientific name, Nyctibatrachus acanthodermis, derives from two Greek words—acanthos, meaning “spine” or “thorn,” and dermis, meaning “skin”—a reference to the spiny skin on the frog’s back.

(via: National Geo)   (photo: Biju Das)

rhamphotheca:

Newly Discovered Frogs, India:  Coorg Night Frog

by Christine Dell’Amore

Rediscovered after 90 years, the Coorg night frog was originally described in 1920 by CR Narayana Rao, “the pioneer of Indian amphibian research,” researcher Biju Das said. The species was discovered in Coorg—now Kodagu—an area in India’s Karnataka state. Das and colleagues found just one male frog in Mercara, a town near Kodagu.

(via: National Geo)   (photo: Biju Das)

rhamphotheca:

Newly Discovered Frogs, India:  Gavi Night Frog

by Christine Dell’Amore

Researcher Biju Das and colleagues found the loud-singing Gavi night frog in a cardamom plantation in India’s Kerala state. It’s named after Gavi, a village in the middle of the plantation. Several of the 12 newly discovered species are very rare, existing only in small pockets of protected forests, Das noted. Others, like the Gavi night frog, live outside reserves and need conservation attention, he said. 

(via: National Geo)   (photo: Biju Das)

rhamphotheca:

Newly Discovered Frogs, India:  Wayanad Night Frog

by Christine Dell’Amore

With males measuring up to 3 inches (7.7 centimeters), the robust-bodied Wayanad night frog is the now biggest of the Nyctibatrachus genus. Unlike their brethren, which abandon their eggs when threatened, Wayanad frogs will stay and fight aggressors. For example, “when the [egg] site was approached too closely by the investigator, the guarding animals … instantly inflated or raised the body, and did not hesitate to bite a twig or a finger,” according to the study.

 (via: National Geo)   (photo: Biju Das)

rhamphotheca:

Newly Discovered Frogs, India:  Jog’s Night Frog

by Christine Dell’Amore

The newfound species Jog’s night frog has an “extremely unique” parenting style, at least for frogs: Both mom and dad watch over their eggs until they hatch. Named for their habitat of Jog Falls, the frogs live along fast-flowing streams. When courting a female, the male will sit on a leaf or a branch above the stream and make an “advertisement call,” Das said.

When a female approaches, he’ll grasp her with his front legs for about 20 minutes. When he dismounts, the female lays eggs, which the male promptly fertilizes and then covers with his body. Researcher  Biju Das has observed co-parenting in just six night-frog species, though he suspects it exists across the Nyctibatrachus genus.

(via: National Geo)   (photo: Biju Das)

rhamphotheca:

Newly Discovered Frogs, India:  Meowing Night Frog

by Christine Dell’Amore

A unique “catcall” inspired the name of the meowing night frog (pictured), one of 12 new species of frogs found recently in western India, a new study says. The 1.4-inch (3.5-centimeter) frog Nyctibatrachus poocha—”poocha” meaning “domestic cat” in the local Indian language—has a “secretive lifestyle,” hiding out inside rock crevices in the states of Western Ghats-Kerala and Tamil Nadu, said Biju Das, a biologist at the University of Delhi.

Between 1994 and 2010, Das and colleagues scoured forests along Indian’s western coast for nocturnal, stream-dwelling frogs in the poorly studied genusNyctibatrachus. In addition to revealing the 12 new species, the team rediscovered 3 species thought extinct, according to the study, published September 15 in the journalZootaxa.

(via: National Geo)   (photo: Biju Das)