Here is an interesting article from BBC News Online that was passed on to me by a zoo member. Scientists think they have resolved one of the most controversial environmental issues of the past decade: the curious case of the missing frogs’ legs. Around the world, frogs are found with missing or misshaped limbs, a striking deformity that many researchers believe is caused by chemical pollution. However, tests on frogs and toads have revealed a more natural, benign cause. The deformed frogs are actually victims of the predatory habits of dragonfly nymphs, which eat the legs of tadpoles.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8116000/8116692.stm
Here are some interesting related articles…
A billion frogs on world’s plates: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7845306.stm
Project launched to fight frog-killing fungus: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30686761/
Ten new amphibian species found in Columbia: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28940168/displaymode/1107/s/2/
Pollution's effect on the sensitive biology of the frog
Posted by mike on August 15, 2009 at 9:39 pm
The study by Ballengee and Sessions puts forward an interesting potential explanation for some types of frog deformities. Unfortunately, their research fails to live up to the media hype; it does not solve the mystery of deformed frogs. In the laboratory, they found that some dragonfly larvae will remove limbs of tadpoles. However, Ballengee and Sessions did not actually test the predictions of the dragonfly hypothesis with rigorous data from the field. For example, a clear prediction of their hypothesis is that as the frequency of dragonfly larvae in wetlands increases, the frequency of missing-limb deformities in those wetlands is also expected to increase. Ballengee and Sessions did not test this prediction. Testing such predictions is a fundamental component of science. Until there are well-designed studies that examine the relationship between dragonfly density and frogs with missing limbs in nature, the relative importance of the role of predation in amphibian deformities will remain unknown.