All Articles Tagged As: frogs

Pesticide atrazine can turn male frogs into females (3/6/2010)

The herbicide atrazine, one of the world's most widely used pesticides, wreaks havoc with the sex lives of adult male frogs, emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into females, according to a new study by UC Berkeley biologists. These changes occur at atrazine levels below what the EPA considers safe for drinking water. The changes skew sex ratios in the frog population and could be a major cause of amphibian decline worldwide. ...> Full Article

Disease threat may change how frogs mate (8/2/2009)

Dr. Amber Teacher, studying a post-doctorate at Royal Holloway, University of London, has discovered evidence that a disease may be causing a behavioral change in frogs. The research, published in the August edition of Molecular Ecology, has unearthed a surprising fact about our long-tongued friends: wild frogs in the UK may be changing their mating behavior. ...> Full Article

Biologists rediscover endangered frog population (8/1/2009)

For the first time in nearly 50 years, a population of a nearly extinct frog has been rediscovered in the San Bernardino National Forest's San Jacinto Wilderness. Biologists from the US Geological Survey assessing suitability of sites to re-establish frogs and scientists from the San Diego Natural History Museum retracing a 1908 natural history expedition both rediscovered the rare mountain yellow-legged frog in the San Jacinto Wilderness near Idyllwild, Calif. ...> Full Article

Scientists discover ultrasonic communication among frogs (5/12/2009)

UCLA scientists report on the first frog species that can communicate using purely ultrasonic calls, whose frequencies are too high to be heard by humans. The frog lives only on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. While most of the more than 5,000 frog species worldwide have eardrums that are flat on the side of their heads, these frogs have eardrums recessed in the side of the skull, similar to mammals. ...> Full Article

Spiders, frogs and gecko among exciting discoveries found in Papua New Guinea (3/26/2009)

Jumping spiders, a tiny chirping frog and an elegant striped gecko are among 56 species believed new to science discovered during a Conservation International Rapid Assessment Program expedition to Papua New Guinea's highlands wilderness. ...> Full Article

Red-eyed treefrog embryos actively avoid asphyxiation inside their eggs (11/6/2008)

Red-eyed treefrog embryos react to environmental oxygen concentration before they have blood or muscular movement ...> Full Article

Global warming is killing frogs and salamanders in Yellowstone Park (10/31/2008)

Biology graduate student Sarah McMenamin spent 3 summers in a remote area of the park searching for frogs and salamanders in ponds that had been surveyed 15 years ago; Almost everywhere she looked, she found a catastrophic decrease in the population ...> Full Article

Common insecticide can decimate tadpole populations (9/30/2008)

Insecticide malathion initiates chain reaction that deprives tadpoles of food source, indirectly killing them at doses too small to kill them directly ...> Full Article

Captive breeding introduced infectious disease to Mallorcan amphibians (9/28/2008)

A potentially deadly fungus that can kill frogs and toads was inadvertently introduced by a captive breeding program. ...> Full Article

Rainforest expedition will shine light on frog deaths (8/23/2008)

A physicist and a conservationist are heading for the rain forests of Costa Rica – in a bid to understand more about a deadly fungus that is killing amphibians around the world. ...> Full Article

Dying frogs sign of a biodiversity crisis (8/13/2008)

Devastating declines of amphibian species around the world are a sign of a biodiversity disaster larger than just frogs, salamanders and their ilk ...> Full Article

Ultrasonic frogs can tune their ears to different frequencies (7/23/2008)

Researchers have discovered that a frog that lives near noisy springs in central China can tune its ears to different sound frequencies, much like the tuner on a radio can shift from one frequency to another. It is the only known example of an animal that can actively select what frequencies it hears. ...> Full Article

New study points to agriculture in frog sexual abnormalities (7/5/2008)

A farm irrigation canal would seem a healthier place for toads than a ditch by a supermarket parking lot. But scientists have found the opposite is true. ...> Full Article

When threatened, a few African frogs can morph toes into claws (6/25/2008)

Biologists have determined that some African frogs carry concealed weapons: When threatened, these species puncture their own skin with sharp bones in their toes, using the bones as claws capable of wounding predators. ...> Full Article

Reproductive plasticity revealed: Neotropical treefrog can choose to lay eggs in water or on land (5/21/2008)

Discovery opens new avenues of research into the evolution of reproduction on land ...> Full Article

Female concave-eared frogs draw mates with ultrasonic calls (5/12/2008)

Frogs ability to home in on the sound call is astonishingly precise ...> Full Article

Road losses add up, taxing amphibians and other animals (4/28/2008)

When frogs hit the road, many croak ...> Full Article

First lungless frog Found (4/8/2008)

Researchers have confirmed the first case of complete lunglessness in a frog ...> Full Article

EDGE Amphibians: World's Weirdest Creatures Just Got Weirder (1/26/2008)

A gigantic, ancient relative of the newt, a drawing-pin sized frog, a limbless, tentacled amphibian and a blind see-through salamander have all made it onto a list of the world's weirdest and most endangered creatures. ...> Full Article