Amphibians, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 4, 2014

Tiny Frogs Use Concrete Storm Drains as Megaphones

Little tree frogs in Taiwan may get a boost from mankind during the mating season, according to new research suggesting concrete storage drains augment the amphibians' mating calls. The idea that animals consider acoustics is not a new one. For example, scientists have found that the Spix's disk-winged bat in...

Jun 12, 2014

Frog Licks Bigger Prey Thanks to Super-Sticky Tongue

Horned frogs are capable of consuming prey that are very large relative to the amphibians' own bodies, and they may be able to pull off this impressive feat thanks to the strength of their tongues, new research suggests. When the frogs catapult their tongues to catch a hapless creature, the...

Jul 28, 2014

Frog Population Decline Linked to Killer Pathogen

A virus lethal to wood frog tadpoles may be partly responsible for the alarming and widespread extinction of amphibians seen in recent decades. The study from the NSF-funded National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) showed that ranavirus, a killer pathogen that causes frogs' internal organs to bleed profusely,...

Oct 16, 2014

Animal Sex: How Tree Frogs Do it

It's easy to tell when it's tree frog mating time — just listen for the chorus of croaks. But aside from making noise, what else is involved in the mating behaviors of tree frogs? For the most part, tree frogs are solitary animals devoid of social behaviors, and usually only...

Dec 3, 2014

New Frog Species Coughs Instead of Croaking

A new frog species has been found that ranges from Connecticut to North Carolina and emits a distinct call that sounds more like a cough than a croak. The find not only welcomes a new frog to a life of recognition and a fancy classification name, but it also confirms...

Dec 31, 2014

Fanged Frog Species Gives Birth to Live Young

Frogs and other amphibians lay eggs, but mammals give birth to live young, right? Not always. A newly described species of frog gives birth to live tadpoles, and is the only known frog to do so, researchers say. The discovery happened one night last summer, when researcher Jim McGuire was...

Jan 10, 2015

Eye-Swallowing and Mouth Birth: Freaky Facts About Frogs

Adorable and fascinating, or slimy and repulsive, frogs are many things to many people. But whether you love Kermit or hate him, he's hard to ignore. From swallowing with their eyeballs to giving birth to live tadpoles, here are some strange facts about frogs you probably didn't know. Swallowing, with...

Feb 4, 2015

Newfound Frog Has Strange Breeding Habits

A new species of frog has hopped onto the radar of researchers in Bangladesh. The frogs were discovered after the researchers noticed their unusual breeding habits, according to a new study. Most frogs have a specific mating season, but researchers found that one frog bred all year long, even in...

Mar 23, 2015

Freaky Frog Photos: A Kaleidoscope of Colors (Gallery)

Julie Larsen Maher is staff photographer for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the first woman to hold the position since the society's founding in 1895. In addition to field visits, Maher photographs the animals at WCS's five New York-based wildlife parks: the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium,...

Mar 24, 2015

Shape-Shifting Frog Can Change Its Skin Texture

A fingernail-size frog that can morph its skin texture from spiny to smooth in just minutes is the first shape-shifting amphibian ever found, according to a new report. The tiny mutable rain frog (Pristimantis mutabilis) was discovered on the western slopes of Ecuador's Andes Mountains, in a protected cloud forest...

Apr 22, 2015

Kermit the Frog Look-Alike Discovered in Costa Rica

Already dubbed a real-life Kermit, a new species of frog has been identified in the rainforests of Costa Rica. The inch-long creature, scientifically named Hyalinobatrachium dianae, joins Costa Rica's 13 other glass frogs, named for their translucent bodies through which you can view their organs. (Not all glass frogs, however,...

May 1, 2015

Kermit the Frog Look-Alike Among 5 New Species Uncovered

This story was updated May 4 at 1:15 p.m. EDT. The planet is crawling with critters, but scientists are meeting some of them only just now. During the past month, researchers have published studies on a handful of previously unknown animals. We'll take a look at these newly introduced types...

Jun 4, 2015

In Photos: Teeny-Tiny Frogs Found in Brazil

Seven new species of miniature frogs, each fitting onto the tip of a thumb, have come out of hiding in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, scientists report in the journal PeerJ. The teeny-tiny frogs live on isolated mountaintops in cloud forests. Here's a look at the colorful cuties. [Read full story...

Jun 4, 2015

Squee! New Absurdly Tiny Frogs Found in Brazil

Don't sneeze — you might blow away a newly discovered species. Scientists have uncovered seven new species of teeny-tiny frogs, each smaller than a thumbnail, in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. The miniature frogs live on isolated mountaintops in the cloud forests. The mountaintop habitats are like isolated islands, making the...

Aug 6, 2015

New Jelly-Bean-Size 'Masked' Frog Discovered in the Andes

A tiny new frog species discovered in the Peruvian Andes has a white-mottled belly and a dark face mask that makes it look like a bandit. Noblella madreselva lives in the humid cloud forest near Cusco, Peru, probably only in the valleys right around where it was discovered, researchers report...