Darwin's Frog
I'm quite sure that most of you reading have at least heard of Darwin's -my- finches, with their different beaks and skulls that prove my theory of adaptation and evolution. They were one of my most important researches, if not the most alone. But have you heard of the Darwin's frog?
Even if they are not of upmost value in my work, they are one of the more unique animals that you don't hear about often. I discovered then in 1834 in Chile, while on my famous voyage around the world on the ship HMS Beagle. It is shaped like a leaf, and looks to have a long, triangle shaped extension to it's snout, and green like the surroundings around it. As you can guess, it uses this adaptation to it's advantage, camouflaging itself to hide away from it's predators and to hunt.
You might think, what quality could this frog have that makes it so interesting? The answer is in how it behaves with it's offspring- something seems to be not quite right.
As you can see in the photo, it looks like the parent is eating the child, as a cannibal. But this is not the truth.
To explain: after the Darwin's frog mates, the female lays about 40 eggs in a safe place, where the father protects them for about three weeks until the embryos inside start to move. The male then ingests the eggs, but doesn't actually digest them- they go to it's vocal sac. They hatch about three days later inside the father, and he continues to carry the tadpoles around in the sac where they eat their egg yolks and substances produced by the wall of the sac until metamorphosis. About 6 weeks after being swallowed (in which the adult male eats absolutely nothing), the small frogs hop out of the male's mouth and disperse, which is what is going on in the photo.
This is one of the most extreme paternal actions an animal can take- but it is also an adaptation to protect it's young, ensuring the genetic material is passed on further. We can also see these types of actions in seahorses, and many species of fish. It is one of the more wonderful things about nature-that it can surprise us.
However, things aren't all well for this frog, apart from being predated upon. It is thought out that one of two of these species, has gone extinct- and the other is declining rapidly, and is on the endangered list. This is because of their rapidly declining habitats, forests being turned into tree plantations, and illnesses like a fungal disease called chytridiomycosis that infects their skin. It is thought that one of the species has gone extinct because of it- one of the only cases of extinction by infection, and the other (southern) species' numbers have plummeted because of it as well.
what the fungus looks like on a frog.
It's truly a shame that such wonders of nature might vanish forever soon.
Even if they are not of upmost value in my work, they are one of the more unique animals that you don't hear about often. I discovered then in 1834 in Chile, while on my famous voyage around the world on the ship HMS Beagle. It is shaped like a leaf, and looks to have a long, triangle shaped extension to it's snout, and green like the surroundings around it. As you can guess, it uses this adaptation to it's advantage, camouflaging itself to hide away from it's predators and to hunt.
You might think, what quality could this frog have that makes it so interesting? The answer is in how it behaves with it's offspring- something seems to be not quite right.
As you can see in the photo, it looks like the parent is eating the child, as a cannibal. But this is not the truth.
To explain: after the Darwin's frog mates, the female lays about 40 eggs in a safe place, where the father protects them for about three weeks until the embryos inside start to move. The male then ingests the eggs, but doesn't actually digest them- they go to it's vocal sac. They hatch about three days later inside the father, and he continues to carry the tadpoles around in the sac where they eat their egg yolks and substances produced by the wall of the sac until metamorphosis. About 6 weeks after being swallowed (in which the adult male eats absolutely nothing), the small frogs hop out of the male's mouth and disperse, which is what is going on in the photo.
This is one of the most extreme paternal actions an animal can take- but it is also an adaptation to protect it's young, ensuring the genetic material is passed on further. We can also see these types of actions in seahorses, and many species of fish. It is one of the more wonderful things about nature-that it can surprise us.
However, things aren't all well for this frog, apart from being predated upon. It is thought out that one of two of these species, has gone extinct- and the other is declining rapidly, and is on the endangered list. This is because of their rapidly declining habitats, forests being turned into tree plantations, and illnesses like a fungal disease called chytridiomycosis that infects their skin. It is thought that one of the species has gone extinct because of it- one of the only cases of extinction by infection, and the other (southern) species' numbers have plummeted because of it as well.
It's truly a shame that such wonders of nature might vanish forever soon.
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