Frogs

It can be hard to determine if an animal is extinct or just really good at hiding. A new study shows how environmental DNA can help the hunt, with several missing frog species rediscovered in Brazil, including one that hasn’t been seen in 50 years.

The line between robots and living organisms is beginning to blur. Researchers at the University of Vermont and Tufts University have now essentially created new creatures from frog cells, complete with programmable behaviors.

Frog populations are a key indicator of an area's ecological health, and one of the best ways of gauging their levels involves estimating the number of frog vocalizations being made at one time. The FrogPhone could make it easier than ever to do so.

​If you're a fan of frogs, then unfortunately you've probably heard of ​​Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis​​ (Bd). It's been decimating amphibian populations around the world. Now, however, scientists believe they know where it originates – and that knowledge could help keep it from spreading.

​Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is a deadly skin fungus that threatens populations of frogs and salamanders around the world. There may be new hope for catching it early enough to limit amphibian fatalities, however, thanks to the analysis of what's known as environmental DNA.

​How is it that some frogs are able to flush toxins through their bodies that poison would-be predators without causing any harm to themselves? Scientists have pinpointed the mechanism that enables some types of frog to dodge the danger.

The beach ball-sized Beelzebufo (devil toad) lived 68 million years ago, and a new study suggests it may have dined on dinosaurs. By measuring the bite force of its living relatives, researchers were able to scale up their findings to estimate the jaw strength of the extinct big-mouthed behemoths.

​​So-called "glassfrogs" are known as such because the skin on their bellies is transparent, leaving their lower abdominal organs visible. In a newly-discovered species of glassfrog from Amazonian Ecuador, however, that transparency extends to the animal's chest.

Frog mucus might seem like the kind of flu remedy a witch doctor would suggest, but researchers have found that certain peptides excreted by frogs can fight off human flu strains. As such, they could be used as emergency stand-ins during flu outbreaks when regular vaccines aren’t available.

Researchers at Georgia Tech have discovered that frog saliva switches between watery and viscous states, allowing the animals to both catch prey and then whip it back into their mouths. The findings could have implications for human technology.​

Frogs are increasingly having more sex on dry land than in rivers and lakes and new research says that the reason for this might be for males to avoid competition from other males. In arriving at this theory, the researchers took a look at frog testes.

When the Tungara frog lays its eggs, it also produces a foam. Surrounding the eggs, that foam protects them. As it turns out, a synthetic version of the substance may also one day have another use – delivering medication to serious skin wounds.