Frogs are amazing

[Michaelangelica]

Frogs are amazing

 

Here is just one of many examples.

(Can we add others?)

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1705318.htm

 

Frog Glue

Reporter: Maryke Steffens

Producer: Gabrielle Betteridge

Researcher: Maryke Steffens & Gabrielle Betteridge

 

Transcript

 

3 August 2006

Deep in the outback, far underground, lives a small frog that could soon be hopping its way into surgical theatres around the country.

The Holy Cross frog secretes a sticky substance from its back that orthopaedic surgeons are excited about – could it be used as a medical adhesive for muscular skeletal injuries?

The frog normally uses this glue to ensnare biting insects for food, but researchers have discovered that it’s stronger than any non-toxic medical adhesive on the market.

[learnin to learn]

Frogs are amazing creatures. They are a great example of adapting to ones environment! What I think is amazing is they can become asexual if they need to! Just imagine if women could become asexual, us guys would be out of business!:hihi:

[Mercedes Benzene]

Maybe you should post about them in the "cool animals" thread. :hihi: ss

[InfiniteNow]

I like 'em too. A little bit of olive oil and cayenne, but really, chicken will do when you're in a pinch and the guests arrive early. :hihi:

[learnin to learn]

I like 'em too. A little bit of olive oil and cayenne, but really, chicken will do when you're in a pinch and the guests arrive early. :lightning

 

:lightning :lightning that is true!!!!

[Queso]

I'm convinced that earth isn't the only place in the universe where amphibians exist.

[learnin to learn]

I would not doubt it!

[Turtle]

I have hunted & eaten hundreds of bullfrogs and per se, their legs, for more decades than I care to recount. Contrary to popular myth, they don't taste like chicken! they taste like fish & have the texture of chicken.

 

My most unusual frog encounter involves actually the tadpole of a rare frog. Being the only frog tadpole species to have a "sucker-like" mouth, I mistook them for leaches when I encountered them on the Green Fork River in the Gifford Pinchot national Forest in Washington State USA in the year of 1,992 years before the common era. I have since learned they develop into the rare Tailed Frog which inhabits a narrow band of territory extending along the Pacific NW regions of British Columbia & the United States.

I visited the area recently on a scientific Sasquath expedition, however I saw no tadpoles in the Green Fork; likely too early in the season as my previous sighting occured in July. :)

[InfiniteNow]

Contrary to popular myth, they don't taste like chicken! they taste like fish & have the texture of chicken.

 

Darn it... :rant:

 

My attempt at humor foiled by Turtle's attempt at accuracy... ;)

[Jay-qu]

Let me ask a question I was asked a few years back, is a frogs bum water-tight?

[learnin to learn]

I think so, I disected a couple of frogs a couple of years back. I am pretty sure that they are, but it would not hurt to have a second opinion.

[Michaelangelica]

 

My most unusual frog encounter involves actually the tadpole of a rare frog. Being the only frog tadpole species to have a "sucker-like" mouth, I mistook them for leaches when I encountered them on the Green Fork River in the Gifford Pinchot national Forest in Washington State USA in the year of 1,992 years before the common era. I have since learned they develop into the rare Tailed Frog which inhabits a narrow band of territory extending along the Pacific NW regions of British Columbia & the United States.

I visited the area recently on a scientific Sasquath expedition, however I saw no tadpoles in the Green Fork; likely too early in the season as my previous sighting occured in July. :)

Amazing thank you.

 

Many frogs in Australia are having problems surviving.

Some say it is increased UV from ozone depletion; others say a virus is responsible; but certainly the introduction of the Queensland Cane Toad from South America was/is a major environmental disaster.

They out-compete the native frogs everywhere. They are the only toad in Australia and were introduced to control a sugar-cane bug which they didn't do.

Enterprising tourist operators stuff them in poses playing golf etc

Some smoke them for the supposed high from their poison glands.

Native animals,snakes and dogs that eat them die from the poison gland.

It is feared that this year they might reach the pristine World Heritage Park 'Kakadu' in NT

 

There used to be tadpoles in any bit of water when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s now it is rare to see any.

 

Dart Poison

Golden Poison Frog ( * Phyllobates terribilis * )

Golden Poison Frog

Phyllobates terribilis

The golden poison frog is found in moist tropical rain forests. They lay eggs on land, and when the tadpoles hatch, the male carries them on his back to a larger area of water where they will complete their metamorphosis.

© Taran Grant/AMNH

 

The Emberá Chocó, an indigenous people of western Colombia, rely on three local and highly toxic frog species to poison their blow darts. Hunters rub handmade darts along the backs of the frogs; scientists report that a single Phyllobates terribilis frog can supply enough toxin to taint 30 to 50 darts, which stay potent for roughly a year. The Emberá typically use their blowguns for hunting, but in the past may have also used them in warfare

FROM:

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/frogs/vivarium/dartpoison.php

--

[Ganoderma]

i had been looking for tailed frogs in bc for a good 8 years and have yet to see one...talk about pathetic. certainly do not seem common! i believe tehre is another tailed frog in new zealand or oz, cant remember. cool creatures.

[Michaelangelica]

i had been looking for tailed frogs in bc for a good 8 years and have yet to see one...talk about pathetic. certainly do not seem common! i believe tehre is another tailed frog in new zealand or oz, cant remember. cool creatures.

I vaguely remember seeing that they give birth to fully grown live young not tadpoles (pollowogs)

??Don't know of an Aust. Variety

 

This was in the news today:

Frogs may buy time for organ transplants

Monday Aug 7 18:21 AEST

 

A tiny frog that freezes itself during winter and thaws back to life months later could provide the vital key to keeping human organs alive for life-saving transplants.

 

Canadian researcher Ken Storey first investigated the amazing ability of the Canadian wood frog in the 1980s and has now turned his attention to enthusing other scientists about the medical possibilities the amphibian can offer.

 

"What these little creatures do is just incredible, literally living with ice in their veins," Prof Storey told AAP.

 

"If we could just find out how they do it and replicate it, then that's a lot of lives saved."

 

 

Prof Storey discovered the frog could survive sub-zero temperatures using complex molecular interaction.

 

This involves different genes and proteins which releases glucose into the animals cells, forming a slushy sugar solution that prevents the cells from shrinking beyond repair.

 

Other mechanisms trigger and guide ice growth throughout the blood and body cavities so that about 65 per cent of the frog's total body water is turned to ice.

 

In this state the heart and kidneys stop, the brain waves are halted and the animal is suspended in biological time all winter.

MORE AT:

 

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=120457

[Ganoderma]

wood frogs are pretty cool, thankfully more common as well.

 

the New Zealand frogs are in the genus Leiopelma. i was thinking that there were a couple Ascaphus. anyway i found some saved webpages on the computer and it turns out they were split into 2 species. Ascaphus truei and Ascaphus montanus.

 

thought it may be worth mentioning. Chytridiomycosis. A nasty little fungus killing a good number of amphibians. it is apparently being spread by bullfrogs in canada, and they are said to be unaffected...i am really curious why bullfrogs are not affected by it? there are some other large ranids in canada, like the red legged frog, which are being affected.

 

http://www.vet.uga.edu/ivcvm/2000/Daszak/Daszak.htm

[Turtle]

I vaguely remember seeing that they give birth to fully grown live young not tadpoles (pollowogs)

??

If you refer to the tailed frogs here as "they", then no, what you think you heard is false. The tadpole looks very much like most tadpoles, having no limbs, no lungs, and a tail. What differs is the mouth, which as I say is a "sucker-mouth" which they use to cling to rocks in slow moving undisturbed streams such as The Green Fork River in Washington State's Gifford Pinchot National Forest where I saw & caught them.:)

[learnin to learn]

How can Frogs be Asexual, are all Amphibians asexual seen as they have similar lifestyles?

 

What other known species are asexual?

 

well earthworms for one.

here is a couple sites for you to look at:

http://home.comcast.net/~john.kimball1/BiologyPages/A/AsexualReproduction.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynogenesis