Look, There in the Plant! It's Micro-Frog!

"Micro Frog Discovered Inside Bornean Pitcher Plants"
Wired Science (August 25, 2010)

"Scientists have discovered the Old World's smallest species of frog living inside pitcher plants in the jungles of Southeast Asia's Borneo.

"The micro frogs, named Microhyla nepenthicola, grow to only 0.4 to 0.5 inches long — about the size of a pea. It was discovered living along the edge of a road in Kubah National Park in Borneo by a team of scientists searching for the world's lost amphibians, species considered to be extinct that may still have remnant populations.

'I saw some specimens in museum collections that are over 100 years old,' biologist Indraneil Das, one of frog discovers, said in a press release. 'Scientists presumably thought they were juveniles of other species, but it turns out they are adults of this newly-discovered micro species.'..."

These tiny little tree frogs are really, really cute: a property they share with most of the endangered animals we read about.

It's quite possible that they're really endangered: or maybe just too small to show up when researchers take a stroll through the forest. On the other hand, this could be another case like the spotted owl, which can only nest in virgin forests - and K-Mart signs.

Whatever, the critters are very cute: and yes, the one on the pencil apparently is full-grown. For that sort of frog, anyway.

Did I mention that they're cute?

Himalayan Frogs Shake Up Geologists' Assumption

"Tiny Frogs Reveal Big Secrets of Plate Tectonics"
Earth News, Discovery News (August 7, 2010)

"Around 55 million years ago, India and China collided. Some time after that -- geologists disagree on exactly when this happened -- the Himalayan-Tibetan plateau rose skyward, creating the rugged landscape that today attracts tourists and mountain climbers from all over the world.

"Now a new study has constructed the evolution of various frog species found across eastern Asia, giving geologists a genetic clock by which they can time the upheaval of the region known as 'the roof of the world.'

"In a new article in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by David Wake of the University of California, Berkley detailed how four different waves of divergence among frog species -- the point when new species are created from a common ancestor -- can be explained by four major tectonic events in the region...."

There were a few surprises here. First, the scientists found that what they'd figured was one species of frog weren't: They looked alike because they'd adapted to the same environment. Mountain streams, in this case.

(I've posted about critters that live closer to sea level adapting over the weekend. (August 8, 2010))

Another surprise was that, after they'd finished analyzing and plotting their data, they found that the smooth, gradual uplift of the Himalayas - probably wasn't. Apparently it's easier to fit the data about what was happening with the mountains to what was happening with the frogs, if you assume that the mountains went up by fits and starts.

That runs contrary to the conventional idea that the Himalayas were pushed up gradually.

This could either result in a very close examination of the frog research and geological data collected to date - or in the heretic scientists being fired. That's happened before, when someone came up with the 'wrong' answer.

I'm inclined to take the frog data seriously; partly since it's not calculated to win automatic acceptance by going along with the flow; partly since the numbers show when the periods of rapid uplift happened.

Also, because abrupt changes do happen. Like the city in Chile that was 10 miles farther west in March, than it had been in January of this year. (March 10, 2010)

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More in this blog:

• "Change, American Culture, Trilobites, Humanity's History, and the Big Picture"

Transparent Frogs and Other Japanese Innovations

Japan, known for giving the world sushi, whose advertising slogan seems to be "you can never have too much neon," and where the world's first fuel-cell-powered robot was designed, has done it again.

Scientists in Hiroshima have developed the first transparent frog.

No joke.

Actually, it's the frogs' skin that's transparent, making it possible to observe what's going on inside without hurting the frog.

They've also got glow-in-the-dark frogs.

Again, no joke. In both cases, the frogs were developed to make medical research easier.

Frog Blogs: Blogs and Posts About Frogs

I found frogs underrepresented in the blogosphere. Until that damp day comes, when croaks and ribbits resound among the domains, frog-lovers everywhere will have to settle this sort of frogosphere:

• On Frogs (Fraudulent Blogs) This post isn't even about frogs! Well, it is, but it's about really stupid marketing, FRaudulent blOGS, not those charming amphibians that ribbit their way into our hearts
• Frogs and Newts In The Barleycorn Pond. Mostly frog photos - look for other posts in this blog, like Guess Who's back? (frogs spawning)
• a post on frogs and toads: an artist's perspective
• Frogs, Toads and Newts By Perry Not a blog, but it's personal: and informative
• De La Cruz on Dogs, Frogs, and Chickens on the civil rights aspects of squishing pests, and related subjects
• Poison arrow frogs blog / News articles on Poison arrow frogs "Mongabay.com news articles on poison arrow frogs in blog format. Updated regularly."