http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/10...a.ap/index.html

 

 

I figured this would interest Flaxx. Basically this frog adapted to life in fast moving, oxygen rich streams by breathing through its skin and no longer needing lungs. The guy who discovered this frog first saw it 30 years ago and has been looking for it ever since.

Yep, God has made some weird stuff

 

/leaves thread, been there, done that

That's pretty cool, I'll have to find the journal article and give it a read.

 

Based just on the CNN story, I'd assume the investigator mis-spoke when he called these frogs "the most ancient" frogs you'll find. Surely, this lungless species evolved from a normal lung-bearing line that lost the organs at some point. Otherwise, there would be a lot of fossil evidence of lunglessness being an ancestral trait in frogs.

 

I also don't have a good feel for the scale of the animal from the CNN article. Cutaneous and buccal respiration are usually considered insignificant to be the primary means of respiration in animals with any sort of size to them. The article also suggests that the frogs are not entirely sedentary if they have to navigate the fast streams they live in. High physical activity levels would be really interesting to see in a vertebrate that only respires cutaneously.

 

Very cool stuff. Thanks for posting.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/10...a.ap/index.html

 

 

I figured this would interest Flaxx. Basically this frog adapted to life in fast moving, oxygen rich streams by breathing through its skin and no longer needing lungs. The guy who discovered this frog first saw it 30 years ago and has been looking for it ever since.

 

 

Pfffft...call me when there's a two-faced baby.

Pfffft...call me when there's a two-faced baby.

 

 

what is your phone number?

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4470314a10.html

what is your phone number?

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4470314a10.html

 

 

WHA...???

 

That's pretty cool, I'll have to find the journal article and give it a read.

 

Based just on the CNN story, I'd assume the investigator mis-spoke when he called these frogs "the most ancient" frogs you'll find. Surely, this lungless species evolved from a normal lung-bearing line that lost the organs at some point. Otherwise, there would be a lot of fossil evidence of lunglessness being an ancestral trait in frogs.

 

I also don't have a good feel for the scale of the animal from the CNN article. Cutaneous and buccal respiration are usually considered insignificant to be the primary means of respiration in animals with any sort of size to them. The article also suggests that the frogs are not entirely sedentary if they have to navigate the fast streams they live in. High physical activity levels would be really interesting to see in a vertebrate that only respires cutaneously.

 

Very cool stuff. Thanks for posting.

/back for a sec

Or they started out and realized "I'm lungless, I'm without lungs!"

/gone

{damn were is PA, I can't do this on my own}