There's a fascinating story in the Scientific American today by Adam Marcus which takes a closer look at just how the White's tree frog manages to hang on so well:
Biologist Jon Barnes of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, who led the research, used an atomic force microscope (AFM), which can provide images on the scale of billionths of a meter, to scan the feet of White's tree frogs. To the naked eye, the frogs' toe pads appear patterned with flat-topped, hexagonal cells surrounded by grooves filled with mucus. On closer inspection, however, Barnes discovered that the tops were not flat at all but rather were covered by tightly packed "nanopillars," each with a small dimple in the end, which generate powerful friction against the surfaces they contact.
This extremely rare frog - Chiromantis samkosensis aka the Samkos bush frog - has green blood and turquoise-coloured bones and has been found in Cambodia's remote Cardamom Mountains by the international conservation organisation Fauna & Flora International (FFI).
If you're a student who wants to learn about frogs without harming them then check out the latest edition of The Digital Frog 2.5! Virtual frog dissection, anatomy and ecology - it's an amazing eco-option for schools and teachers!
Breaking news on the Internet right now is that 2008 is proving a lucky year for the Mississippi Gopher Frogs in Glen's Pond in coastal Harrison County. The extremely shallow pond dries up in summer stranding tadpoles every year since 1998 forcing biologists to intervene to save each generation since...however, the pond held water longer this year and 181 tadpoles survived.
Another endangered frog currently fighting for survival against the fungus Chytridiomycosis is the Chilean Darwin frog (Rhinoderma darwini).
This frog is absolutely unique in that its eggs are incubated in the vocal sac of the male frog during a period of two months, after which the hatched tadpoles leave the mouth.
Scientists have discovered two rare species of frog that were thought to be extinct living in the wild.
The first is an extremely rare female tree frog spotted in the Costa Rican cloud forest for the first time in 20 years. The pregnant example of Isthmohyla rivularis comes a year after the discovery a male example.
Meanwhile, in tropical north Australia a frog species not seen for the past 17 years - the Australian armoured mist frog - was also discovered.Â
An incredibly rare frog has been filmed for the first time, scientists believe.The red-eyed stream frog is found in Costa Rica, but it is now thought to be critically endangered.
The tiny, vividly coloured frog was spotted by a team from the University of Manchester, Chester Zoo and Costa Rican naturalists.
As the eyes of the world are on China and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games there was an interesting report from the Amphibian Ark in their newsletter this morning outlining efforts in China to help conserve endangered amphibians. Conservation programs already exists for Philautus romeri - Romer's Tree Frog - which is endemic to Hong Kong, but in May this year The Amphibian Ark held a Prioritization Workshop for all amphibian species in Hong Kong and Guangdong to assess the need for potential ex situ conservation programs for other species.
There's an amazing bit of news on the Discover Channel Web site. Scientists have discovered that the Chinese Concave-eared Torrent Frog (Odorrana tormota), can manipulate its hearing system to select particular frequencies (rather as humans might tune into individual radio stations) in order to selectively choose what it hears. The most likely reason for this evolutionary development is its extremely noisy environment.
5 for Frogs is a five-month campaign beginning in May. Concerned individuals are encouraged to tell at least 5 people about the amphibian crisis and commit to an activity that will raise money in any amount of "5". The time frame for raising funds should be 5 days, 5 weeks or 5 months, in order to help Amphibian Ark raise $500,000 to save 5 species of frogs. Fifty ideas for getting involved are listed on the Amphibian Ark Web site .
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