Amphibians, features and articles | Educational Science

May 15, 2013

Pregnancy Test Frog May Have Spread Fatal Fungus

A frog once widely imported and bred by hospitals because it lays eggs when injected with a pregnant woman's urine may have brought a deadly amphibian infection to the United States. African clawed frogs infected with the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, could have brought the fungus to California shores,...

May 16, 2013

Pictures: Cute and Colorful Frog Images

Bumblebee Dart Poison Frog (Image credit: © T. Grant/AMNH)A new exhibit featuring live frogs from all over the world is opening at the American Museum of Natural History in New York Saturday (May 17) and runs through January 5, 2014.The exhibition, entitled Frogs: A Chorus of Colors, contains more than...

May 16, 2013

Frogs Swallow Using Eyeballs: Exhibit Reveals Creatures' Quirks

NEW YORK — Neon green, vivid orange, striped and spotted — the frogs are back! An exhibit featuring live frogs from around the world is returning to the American Museum of Natural History here in New York. The exhibition, entitled Frogs: A Chorus of Colors, features more than 150 live...

May 30, 2013

Frogs Fading? Amphibian Census May Guide Recovery Leaps (Op-Ed)

Karen Lips, an amphibian ecologist and tropical biologist, is an associate professor at the University of Maryland in College Park. She contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights It was a dark and steamy night and clouds of insects were biting our faces and hands as we...

Jun 13, 2013

Darwin's Frogs Are in Steep Decline

Some of nature's most fascinating fathers may be at risk of extinction. Male Darwin's frogs swallow their offspring in the tadpole stage, incubate their young in their vocal sacs, and eventually spit out fully developed froglets. Along with seahorses, the frogs are thought to be the only known living vertebrates...

Jun 14, 2013

Endangered California Frogs Let Loose in Wild

In a boost to California's endangered amphibians, researchers released about 100 mountain yellow-legged froglets into the wild this week. The diminutive frogs were bred and raised in captivity for a year before they were released on Wednesday (June 12) into a creek at the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve. This...

Sep 2, 2013

Weird! Tiny Frog Uses Its Mouth to Hear

A small frog native to the Republic of Seychelles lacks a conventional middle ear and eardrum to hear sounds made by other frogs, but new research suggests these peculiar croakers are not deaf, and can instead use their mouth cavities to pick up on noise. Gardiner's frogs from the Seychelles...

Sep 25, 2013

Get a Grip: How Frogs Hold on in Flowing Water

Torrent frogs have an amazing ability to climb in wet environments near waterfalls, where ordinary tree frogs would be washed away. Researchers compared the gripping ability of torrent frogs, a class of frogs that live in fast-flowing mountain or hill streams, to that of tree frogs, and found that torrent...

Oct 16, 2013

Secrets to the Biggest Frog Jumps Ever Revealed

When Mark Twain authored The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County in 1865, he probably didn't expect the short story would be the spark that would result in scientists realizing that their experiments vastly underestimate how far a bullfrog can leap, thus calling into question an entire body of research...

Oct 17, 2013

Devastating Frog Fungus Triggers Cell Suicides

A deadly fungus spreading like wildfire through amphibian populations causes immune cells to commit suicide, a new study finds. The chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis kills frogs and other amphibians by infecting the skin, interfering with fluid and electrolyte levels, and ultimately causing death by cardiac arrest. The results have been...

Nov 20, 2013

Darwin's Frogs Croaking Thanks to Deadly Fungus

Male Darwin's frogs raise young in their mouths, protecting them from predators until they have matured for weeks, when the fathers regurgitate them into the world. But nothing can protect them from a deadly fungus, which has helped push one of the two species of these frogs to probable extinction,...

Dec 13, 2013

Deadly Fungus, Not Climate Change, Killing Frogs in Andes

Warming of the climate isn't directly causing the decline in frog populations in the Andes mountains. Instead, the frogs are falling victim to a killer fungus that is decimating amphibian species worldwide: Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or chytrid fungus. A new study of frogs living in the Andes of southern Peru found...

Jan 23, 2014

Frog 'Love Ripples' Bring Death from Above

Male túngara frogs croak from shallow puddles to attract mates. But new research finds that their love songs have a dark side: They create ripples that attract the attention of frog-eating bats. And while these frogs can clam up when they sense a bat fluttering nearby, and avoid becoming a...

Jan 29, 2014

Primeval 'Devil Frog' May Have Sported Anti-Dinosaur Armor

An ancient, predatory creature known as the devil frog may have looked even scarier than previously thought. The monster frog, Beelzebufo ampinga, lived during the Cretaceous Period in what is now Africa, and sported spiky flanges protruding from the back of its skull and platelike armor down its back, almost...

Apr 29, 2014

See-Through Frog Embryos Know When Dad's Not Watching

With their hearts, guts and other internal organs visible through translucent skin, glass frogs look vulnerable. Now, scientists have found that the embryos of these nocturnal frogs do not like staying defenseless, so they hatch more quickly when their fathers desert them. The early stages of life are usually the...