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Frog Snuggle Sack and Cap | $35.95
Now isn’t this absolutely adorable? The Frog Snuggle Sack and Cap from the NeatoShop will be the hit of the baby shower, and the nursery, too! The snuggle sack is light-green, textured polyester with sunny-gold tummy sprinkled with polka dots; a meadow-green jumper like fit at the top; dark-green froggie feet, and a jumping-frog applique that says “sLEAPy BABY” The matching froggy-face cap has big eyes and a smiling mouth with a stretchy pink tongue. Check out the ladybug version and the night owl sleep sack, too, at the NeatoShop!
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A newly-discovered frog, Paedophryne amauensis, is not only the smallest frog species, but the smallest vertebrate ever found. The frogs were found in the rain forest of Papua New Guinea, living among fallen leaves. They are 7 millimeters long, about a quarter of an inch.
They are well camouflaged among leaves on the forest floor, and have evolved calls resembling those of insects, making them hard to spot.
“The New Guinea forests are incredibly loud at night; and we were trying to record frog calls in the forest, and we were curious as to what these other sounds were,” said research leader Chris Austin from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, US.
“So we triangulated to where these calls were coming from, and looked through the leaf litter.
“It was night, these things are incredibly small; so what we did after several frustrating attempts was to grab a whole handful of leaf litter and throw it inside a clear plastic bag.
“When we did so, we saw these incredibly tiny frogs hopping around,” he told BBC News.
The frog pictured is sitting on a dime. Link -via Fark
(Image credit: Rittmeyer et al)
Frog Tape Dispenser – $11.95
Nothing says I am going spring into action and seize the day like the Frog Tape Dispenser from the NeatoShop. Yes, your friends and co-workers will be green with envy when they see this little number sitting on your desk. Only those who are a leap ahead of the competition sport this type of tape dispenser.
Be sure to hop on over to the NeatoShop for more jaw dropping and fabulous Office Supplies!
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One year ago today, a devastating earthquake shook Haiti. An expedition from Conservation International went to Haiti in October to see how the forest ecosystem was affected. Amphibian Conservation Officer Dr. Robin Moore and Dr. Blair Hedges from Pennsylvania State University led the search for endangered species, particularly for the La Selle grass frog, which hadn’t been seen since 1985.
Although they didn’t find the “lost” frog in question, the week-long expedition did unearth 23 of Haiti’s 49 known native frog species — six of which hadn’t been seen in 19 years. Among the rediscoveries: the ventriloquial landfrog (Eleutherodactylus dolomedes), which was previously only known from a few specimens. As its name implies, this species can project its voice to sound as if it’s coming from somewhere else, making it extremely difficult to locate. Moore and the other researchers spent hours trying to home in on one individual.
During the survey, individuals from 10 Critically Endangered species were collected for a captive breeding program at the Philadelphia Zoo. This captive population will preserve the species (and allow for possible reintroduction) if the wild populations are wiped out — an assured outcome if deforestation is allowed to continue.
“The biodiversity of Haiti, including its frogs, is approaching a mass extinction event caused by massive and nearly complete deforestation,” said Dr. Blair Hedges. “Unless the global community comes up with a solution soon, we will lose many unique species forever.”
At the Conservation International website, you can hear the sounds of the ventriloqual frog and the Macaya burrowing frog shown here, and see pictures of all the rediscovered amphibians. Link
(Image credit: © Robin Moore/iLCP)
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Photo: Agnes Milowka, Wes/Karst Productions
Our pal National Geographic has launched a very neat TV series and companion book called Nat Geo AMAZING! The series and book are jam-packed (you guessed it) amazing facts and even more amazing photos and video clips.
Take, for instance, the one above, an exploration of underwater caves:
Blue holes can run extremely deep underground, with one Bahamian blue hole exceeding 600 feet (180 meters) below sea level, and contain a series of mazelike passageways going miles in many directions. These cave systems can transition from giant rooms to tiny holes that divers must remove all of their gear in order to squeeze through. To add to the challenge, currents reverse in the ocean caves, making timing of dives critical. All in all, a difficult place to explore and even more challenging to achieve the range of scientific and filming goals that the team has on their agenda.
Blue Holes Project | Nat Geo AMAZING! website | The book on Amazon
... or this one about scientist Valerie Clark whose job is to lick frogs for a living:
And best yet, the folks over at National Geographic are kind enough to spot 4 copies of Nat Geo AMAZING! only for you, Neatoramanauts!
Take a look at our Neatorama Spotlight feature for the book for details on how to win a copy: Link
Poor Greece. First it was the whole debt crisis, then came this pestilence of frogs:
Greek officials say a horde of frogs has forced the closure of a key northern highway for two hours.
Thessaloniki traffic police chief Giorgos Thanoglou says "millions" of the amphibians covered the tarmac Wednesday near the town of Langadas, some 12 miles east of Thessaloniki.
"There was a carpet of frogs," he said.
What’s next? Locusts? Well, whatever it is, it probably can’t be as bad as what happened to Australia.
Link (Photo: AP/Alpha TV)
Male red-eyed tree frogs communicate with each other by shaking their butts. This behavior was captured on infrared camera in the rain forest of Panama by Michael Caldwell of Boston University and his colleagues.
This shaking, known as tremulation, is a form of communication between male tree frogs.
The males are tremulating to establish which is the dominant male. They’re claiming territory for their ‘calling area’ where they spend the night calling for a female mate.
Sometimes, the shaking leads to wrestling among males… and maybe even more shaking, until the loser retreats.
See the video at National Geographic Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
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Biologists have discovered the first truly monogamous amphibian, the Peruvian poison frog in the rainforest of South America. They’ve also discovered a fascinating reason that these frogs remain committed to each other: it all boils down to real estate!
After mating, a female mimic poison frog lays her eggs on the surface of leaves. The male frog then takes away the tadpoles that hatch, carrying them one by one on his back to pools of water which collect in bromeliad leaves high up in the branches of trees.
Each of half a dozen babies are put into their own tiny pool, which he then looks after. When the tadpoles become hungry, the male calls to his female partner who arrives to lay a non-fertile egg in each pool, which the tadpole eats as food. [...]
Their tadpoles cannot survive without the care of both their father and mother, as there is too little natural food in their smaller pools. So the adult frogs stick together.
Magic Frog to Prince – $3.95
Here’s a kitschy gift idea for Valentine’s Day: a frog in a cup that magically transforms into a prince after you add a little bit of water!
Or, if you want to give the guy in your life a gift he’ll never forget, give ‘em this: the Arrogant Bastard and Double Bastard beer bottle tumblers.
No, it’s not really made of glass, but you can see the heart beating inside this frog, one of 30 new species of creatures found in the highlands of Ecuador. See more of the discoveries in a photo gallery at National Geographic. Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: Paul S. Hamilton, RAEI)
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has figured out how to recreate the “Crunchy Frog” confection made famous in the classic Monty Python sketch (“If we took the bones out it wouldn’t be crunchy would it?”) using Gummi frogs, Pop Rocks, and chocolate.
There are two remarkable things about this recipe. First, Pop Rocks survive being immersed in melted chocolate surprisingly well– they still pop after the chocolate solidifies. Second, the artificial fruit flavor of the Pop Rocks is completely overwhelmed and masked by the bittersweet chocolate. We anticipated a bit of flavor conflict, but the chocolate won out completely, leaving only the pop-whiz-bang of the Pop Rocks.
Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum (glass frog) Photo: Luis Coloma
An expedition on the Nangaritza River of Ecuador, near the border with Peru, has uncovered nearly a dozen species new to science, including four amphibians, a lovely lizard, insects, and plants.
This one above is a species of glass frog, Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum, named after its translucent skin.
These discoveries are hoped to encourage the government to protect the area, which is close to a "peace park" created in the late 90s after decades of conflict. More photos and videos are available from Conservation International.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by ecoconservant.
In India, a newly discovered color-changing frog has been worshipped as a god. Reji Kumar, the person who found it, keeps the frog in a glass jar at his home where hundreds of people come to see it every day.
Apart from the obvious biological findings this hopping lava lamp can provide, it also gives an additional insight as to how religions and spiritual groups can emerge. I don’t blame them either. Who needs color-saturating hallucinogens for spiritual transcendence when you have a kaleidoscopic animal?
I say this new rainbow frog will become the new symbol for racial equality, just as long as it doesn’t croak (which is actually a concern).
The frog was a dazzling white colour when Reji, who is from Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, in south India, first spotted it.
Then it changed to yellow and had gone grey by the time he got it home.
“By night the frog was dark yellow, and then it became transparent so you could see its internal organs,” Reji, a life worker, reportedly said.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by robkullberg.
(Links open in a new browser window/tab)
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There’s something very wrong with this kitchen I can’t believe we nearly bought this! A chilling tale of horror for house hunters. |
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Russian female enjoying an AK-47 I hope everyone was wearing their Kevlar vests – these guns have a bit of a kick to them. |
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Andy Warhol uses an Amiga 1000 to ‘paint’ Debbie Harry, 1985 Weird to think that the era of Andy Warhol intersected with the computer mouse – and he even seems fairly adept with it. |
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Monster Truck Does Quite Impressive Backflip And unlike most monster truck flips – I think this one was even on purpose. |
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Frog escapes from snake after being almost completely ingested A snake has just about swallowed an entire frog when suddenly the frog decides to fight back and eventually escapes up and out of the snake’s stomach. Score one for amphibians! |
For more the web’s most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift.
A newfound frog species in the Boophis genus, photo: Miguel Vences
After finding more than a hundred new frog species in Madagascar over the past 15 years, scientists thought that they’d found everything – but a new study done by a team of international scientists had found up to 221 new species in the island country:
The work suggests that tropical amphibian diversity has been underestimated at an "unprecedented level" worldwide, the study authors write in the May 4 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet," team member Miguel Vences, of the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, said in a statement.
"But the century of discoveries has only just begun—the majority of life-forms on Earth is still awaiting scientific recognition."
Which brings us to the obligatory statement from the President of Madagascar:
With apologies to the scientists
Some frogs are content to swallow a Christmas light, whereas others opt for a larger fare. Check out this green-stripe frog that took a bite out of a smaller green tree frog, as captured by wildlife fan Kerry Roberts in the garden of her home:
She said she heard a frog squealing and assumed that a snake had got into her garden was was eating one of the hundreds of amphibians that live near her house.
Kerry continued: "I was having coffee at about 6.30 in the morning when I heard some squealing and splashing in my pool – like a frog in distress.
"My first thought was ‘oh no, it’s a snake, how am I going to get rid of it?’. But when I went over for a closer to look I saw it was a frog trying to eat another one."
Link (Photo: Kerry Roberts)
Photo: James Snyder
The Daily Dozen feature on National Geographic, edited by photo editor Susan Welchman, is a treasure trove of neat "Your Shots" photos submitted by the magazine’s readers (a selection of which will actually appear on the magazine itself – talk about awesome!).
I particularly like this one, submitted by James Snyder who wrote:
This is a Cuban tree frog on a tree in my backyard in southern Florida. How and why he ate this light is a mystery. It should be noted that at the time I was taking this photo, I thought this frog was dead having cooked himself from the inside. I’m happy to say I was wrong. After a few shots he adjusted his position. So after I was finished shooting him, I pulled the light out of his mouth and he was fine. Actually, I might be crazy but I don’t think he was very happy when I took his light away.
Link to the Daily Dozen (this particular shot by James appeared on the April – Week 1 section)
After being dug up from hibernation by a burrowing dog, thereby shattering his leg, "Brullie" the frog underwent surgery and was fitted with a tiny steel rod to repair his broken lower leg bone.
Doting owner Anne Mearns, 62, said: ‘People think I’m mad to care so much about a frog but I couldn’t bear to see him in so much pain.
‘Frogs are famous for their legs, so the thought of Brullie being left lame broke my heart. I knew without surgery he would never move again, so I to rushed to the vet and begged him to operate.
The vet was more used to saving cats and dogs and couldn’t understand why I was so worried about a frog, but he eventually agreed.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by see_you_@_de_pawty_Richter.
Catherine Brahic of New Scientist blog wrote a pretty neat post about the weirdest animals species of 2008. Take, for instance, the "bone breaking horror frog":
“Amphibian horror” isn’t a movie genre, but on this evidence perhaps it should be. In May, biologists described a hairy frog that actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog’s toe pads, probably when it is threatened.
