formerly a microbiology blog, this will now be a science blog, in which I post science only material. enjoy! p.s. I no longer teach microbiology, so I'm all out of original content, but reblogs will be plenty!
Tree-frog frog spawn. Close-up of the eggs of a tree-frog. Photographed in the Jama Coaque Reserve, Manabi Province, Western Ecuador.
When researchers surveyed this creature’s habitat in 2007, only 6-8 individual Blue-eyed Bush Frogs (Philautus neelanethrus) were found in the Myristica swamps. You might think this is a low number, but apparently this was the highest density the team found. Other areas only revealed 2-4 individuals in forested habitats.
Male poison arrow frog (Dendrobates macero) by pbertner on Flickr.
Walking around at 4:30 in the morning has its advantages. This beautiful frog was found calling from an elevated perch on a fern. Relatively common, I saw several of these whenever I passed riparians on the trail. Found during a night hike in Pantiacolla midlevel rainforest, Manu national park, Peru.
(via earthandscience)
The gastric-brooding frogs or Platypus frogs (Rheobatrachus) were a genus of ground-dwelling frogs native to Queensland in eastern Australia. The genus consisted of only two species, both of which became extinct in the mid-1980s. The genus was unique because it contained the only two known frog species that incubated the prejuvenile stages of their offspring in the stomach of the mother.
What makes these frogs unique among all frog species is their form of parental care. Following external fertilization by the male, the female would take the eggs into her mouth and swallow them. It is not clear whether the eggs were laid on the land or in the water, as it was never observed prior to their extinction.
Eggs found in females measured up to 5.1 mm in diameter and had large yolk supplies. These large supplies are common among species that live entirely off yolk during their period of development. Most female frogs possessed around 40 ripe eggs. This number is almost double that of the number of juveniles ever to be observed occurring in the stomach (21–26). This means one of two things, that the female fails to swallow all the eggs or the first few eggs to be swallowed are digested.
The see-through skin of an 2.5-centimeter-long glass frog reveals her eggs. Native to Venezuela, the frogs lay eggs in bushes and trees overhanging streams. Tadpoles hatch, then tumble into the current to be swept away.
(via thekufismacker)
New colorful rainforest frog named after Prince Charles
by mongabay.com staff
Researchers have discovered a previously unknown species of frog and named it in honor of Prince Charles, according to a paper published in the journal Zootaxa.
The species, dubbed Hyloscirtus princecharlesi, was one of two ‘new’ species described from highly endangered clouds forests in Ecuador. The second species is called Hyloscirtus cryptico.
Both species live in montane forest streams, a habitat that has particularly affected by the chytrid epidemic that has killed untold numbers of amphibians globally and driven dozens of species to extinction since the early 1980s.Hyloscirtus princecharlesi was first identified by Luis A. Coloma, an Ecuadorian scientist, among preserved museum specimens. In 2009 he collected specimen in the wild at Reserva Las Gralarias, a private nature reserve…
(Read more: Monga Bay)(photos: T, BM & BR - H. princecharlesi, BL - H. cryptico; by Luis A. Colima)
found three frogs in a pond at my uncles house in markdale
this one let me take pictures of it and touch it :D so cuute.
