Earth’s only lungless frog caught between rock and hard place

by William Atkins

Tuesday, 08 April 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! A little flat-headed frog from Borneo, thought to be extinct, has been re-discovered. And, the most interesting thing about the frog is that it is an amphibian but does not have lungs for breathing, but instead breathes through its skin. The lungless frog breathes through its skin because of the abundance of oxygen in cold, fast moving streams. However, because of gold mining operations (aka: gold, the "rock") and other human-made activities, which are making its streams warmer and slow moving, its habitat it being threatened (aka: hostile habitat, the "hard place"). In fact, evolutionary ecologist, conservation biologist, and tropical herpetologist David Bickford, the lead author of the research study, has indicated that its original habitat is already totally inhabitable for the little frog. Bickford is the head of the Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Laboratory, which is within the Biodiversity Group, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapre), The aquatic frog was re-discovered by the Bickford team during a recent scientific expedition to Borneo. Bickford stated at the time, “We knew that we would have to be very lucky just to find the frog. People have been trying for 30 years. But when we did and I was doing the initial dissections—right there in the field—I have to say that I was very skeptical at first [that they would in fact lack lungs]. It just did not seem possible. We were all shocked when it turned out to be true for all the specimens we had from Kalimantan, Indonesia.” [EurekAlert: “Found: First Lungless Frog”] The species of the only lungless toad in the world is a small, flat-headed frog scientifically named Barbourula kalimantanensis, part of the Bombinatoridae family. It was first discovered in 1970 (from only two specimens) in Indonesia, but it wasn’t until 2008 that the frog was found not to contain lungs. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and rivers. Bickford added, “The thing that struck me most then and now is that there are still major firsts (e.g., first lungless frog!) to be found out in the field. All you have to do is go a little ways beyond what people have done before, and—voila!” [EurekAlert] How did the frogs develop breathing without lungs? Learn the latest theory on the next page. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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