frogs

Scientists Hope To Foil Deadly Frog Fungus With More Fungus

It’s been called “the worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates.” The devastating effect of the chytrid fungus on frog populations around the world has contributed to the extinction of at least 200 species and no one knows where it came from. But now scientists are hoping to tweak the amphibian’s evolutionary development by bulking…

Tech News Rhett Jones Sep 10

All Hail This Brilliant Animatronic Hypnotoad

Remember that live-action Futurama fan film someone was making? In addition to binging Bender, Fry, Leela, Zoidberg, and the professor into our world, the Fan-o-rama filmmakers are working on realizing other characters too, including the all-knowing, benevolent, hypnotoad—ALL HAIL THE HYPNOTOAD (replica). The folks at Tested got a demo of the creepy Hypnotoad prop made…

io9 Andrew Liszewski Aug 11

Newly Discovered Mating Position Shows Frogs Have Freaky Sex Lives

Until recently, only six frog mating positions had been documented—which is still five more than most people would have ever expected—but as New Scientist points out, a seventh froggystyle position has been found. It’s messy. Before you go taking sex advice from the Bombay Night Frog, let it be known that the “dorsal straddle” position,…

Biology Avery Ellis Jun 14

Biologists Have Discovered Underground, Burrowing Tadpoles

Scientists have documented Indian dancing frogs for over a century. For that century, they’ve found only adult frogs. At last, a team of biologists have found the tadpoles that develop into frogs—and they’ve found them underground. Micrixalus herrei, one of a number of “dancing frogs” in India, spends its days in fast-moving streams. It gets…

Biology Esther Inglis-Arkell Mar 30

Not All Frogs Are Doomed By That Deadly Amphibian Fungus

For twenty years, the deadly fungal disease Bd has been wiping out amphibians across the world. But a new study offers hope that some frogs will be spared, thanks in part to an unexpected savior: climate change. It’s not often that we hear about positive impacts of anthropogenic climate change. And yet, a team of…

Climate Change Maddie Stone Jan 15

These Frogs Do Awkward Dance Numbers to Find a Mate

Brazilian torrent frogs live near running water, which makes communication difficult. So the frogs have developed a broad repertoire of behaviors to tempt a mate and scare off rivals, according to Brazilian researchers at the Universidade Estadual Paulista, who just published their findings in PLOS One. The most common behaviors include loud mating calls in…

Biology Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 13

This is the Last Thing A Fly Ever Sees

This forty-eight second clip tells us something about why flies stick to a frog’s tongue — and it’s almost scarier than Prometheus, with a monster lurching out of the darkness to launch an attack. German researchers took a look at the frog’s adhesive tongue and found it works a lot like the pressure-sensitive adhesives found…

Biology Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 14

Biologists Found a Crazy Solution to That Deadly Amphibian Fungus

In an first-of-its-kind victory, a team of biologists has figured out how to clear ponds of the lethal chytrid fungus that’s decimating amphibian populations worldwide. (Spoiler: It’s pretty damn intense). As reported this week in Biology Letters, biologists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and elsewhere have eliminated the deadly fungus from four out…

Tech News Maddie Stone Nov 18

We Want to Read a Comic Book About These Amazing Samurai Frogs

Sometimes we see character designs that just, ahem, leap off the page, begging to become stars in a larger story. That’s how we feel about Conor Nolan’s “Lilypad 7,” an amphibious crew who come from an alternate version of feudal Japan. We asked Nolan where these designs came from, and he responded over email: It’s…

io9 Lauren Davis Oct 11

Here is a Bat Swooping Down to Catch a Frog. It’s Scary. Have a Good Weekend.

Watching a fringe-lipped bat swooping down to eat a tungara frog will give you a new appreciation for bats as predators. It will also give you a new appreciation for how much male frogs want to mate. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin filmed multiple views of bats coming down and ripping frogs…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Aug 28

Venomous Frogs Use Deadly Face Spines to Slay Their Enemies

It’s common sense that you shouldn’t try to eat a poison dart frog. But you probably don’t want to go anywhere near one of these adorable little suckers, which use the tiny, bony spines on their faces to jab threatening animals with a venom more potent than that of a deadly pit viper. Meet Aparasphenodon…

Biology Maddie Stone Aug 6

Watch frog eggs turn into tadpoles in this beautiful time lapse

This amazing time lapse shows frog eggs transforming into tadpoles in a mere 30 seconds. The spawn of frogs is so impressive and so sudden and so perfect that it’s easy to forget how complicated it is for Mother Nature to do that beautiful thing where she gives birth to life. Watch it all in…

Sploid Casey Chan Jun 9

Wood Frog Mating Is A Wet, Competitive Orgy

When wood frogs emerge from hibernation, a frantic competitive orgy happens. They meet up in frigid temporary pools left behind by melting snow, and over the course of just a few days, males grab nearly anything that moves in the hopes of winning a spot on a female’s back. Top Image: Brian Gratwicke via flickr|…

Biology Diane Kelly May 14

Newly discovered frog species looks a lot like Kermit the Frog

We’ve found Kermit the Frog in real life and it’s a species of glassfrog just recently discovered called Hyalinobatrachium dianae in Costa Rica. It’s bright green just like Kermit, has big white adorable eyeballs just like Kermit and the males have a very unique mating call… just like Kermit, I guess? Anyway, the resemblance is…

Sploid Casey Chan Apr 20

Punk Frogs Are First Known Vertebrate to Change Skin Texture

A new species of frog is the first known vertebrate able to change the texture of its own skin. The frogs, which live among mossy forests in Ecuador, sprout protrusions called tubercles to mimic their surroundings. When moved away from moss, the tubercles recede. Named Pristimantis mutabilis, or the “mutable rainfrog” this trait has led…

io9 Gordon Jackson Apr 4

Black bun fried frog burger looks scary but is probably delicious

Fried frogs can look frighteningly like failed science experiments and imagining eating them might conjure gooey liquid slime down your throat but they’re actually quite enjoyable to eat. So even though this black bun burger looks like it has disgustingly trapped a gross frog, I’m sure it tastes just fine. The burger is being sold…

Sploid Casey Chan Mar 6

7 More Viral Photos That Are Totally Fake

Hundreds of images flash in front of our eyes each week as we navigate this strange machine we call the internet. But sometimes those images are lying to us. The following lies are culled from the bits and bytes that came through the tubes over the past few weeks. 1) Are these school lunches from…

Tech News Matt Novak Mar 3

Why The Rare Substance These Frogs Produce Is Named After The Smurfs

Ranasmurfin often decorates trees in Malaysia. This pigment is rare, one of the few proteins in nature to be blue instead of orange, red, or yellow. Why do you see it in trees? And how is it made? The Malaysian tree frog, Polypedates leucomystax, has a rather involved mating ritual. A male and a female…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Feb 11

This Scientific Paper Proves That Nature Never Stops Weirding Us Out

Every now and again, when reading about nature, you come across a fact that you would never, ever believe if you were to read it in fiction. A science fiction novel that featured a creature which used its eyes to eat – literally to push food down its throat – would be ridiculous. But that’s…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 30

This Freaky New Frog Gives Birth To Live Tadpoles, Not Eggs

Scientists have never seen anything quite like this before. It’s a newly discovered species of fanged frog that gives direct birth to live tadpoles instead of laying eggs. It isn’t that rare for scientists to find new species of animals, but finding an entirely new mode of reproduction is a different story altogether. The newly…

io9 George Dvorsky Jan 2

Scientists Hope To Foil Deadly Frog Fungus With More Fungus

All Hail This Brilliant Animatronic Hypnotoad

Newly Discovered Mating Position Shows Frogs Have Freaky Sex Lives

Biologists Have Discovered Underground, Burrowing Tadpoles

Not All Frogs Are Doomed By That Deadly Amphibian Fungus

These Frogs Do Awkward Dance Numbers to Find a Mate

This is the Last Thing A Fly Ever Sees

Biologists Found a Crazy Solution to That Deadly Amphibian Fungus

We Want to Read a Comic Book About These Amazing Samurai Frogs

Here is a Bat Swooping Down to Catch a Frog. It’s Scary. Have a Good Weekend.

Venomous Frogs Use Deadly Face Spines to Slay Their Enemies

Watch frog eggs turn into tadpoles in this beautiful time lapse

Wood Frog Mating Is A Wet, Competitive Orgy

Newly discovered frog species looks a lot like Kermit the Frog

Punk Frogs Are First Known Vertebrate to Change Skin Texture

Black bun fried frog burger looks scary but is probably delicious

7 More Viral Photos That Are Totally Fake

Why The Rare Substance These Frogs Produce Is Named After The Smurfs

This Scientific Paper Proves That Nature Never Stops Weirding Us Out

This Freaky New Frog Gives Birth To Live Tadpoles, Not Eggs

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