\The smallest frogs are the Paedophryne dekotand Paedophryne verrucosa from Papua New Guinea, sizing in at only only 9 mm in length. Next up is the critically endangered Cuban frog Eleutherodactylus iberia. These frogs measure only 10 mm (0.4 in) when fully grown. They are threatened by pesticides, and by large-scale mining operations that destroy their habitat (Photo of E. iberia by M. Lammertink). do you not this
The strawberry poison dart frog Dendrobates pumilio has an extraordinary reproductive strategy. Females lay their eggs in the leaf-litter or on plants. When the tadpoles hatch, they climb onto the mother's back. She then transports them to small pockets of water in bromeliads or other vegetation, often high in the trees. She returns intermittently through their development to lay unfertilized eggs in the water. These eggs serve as the tadpoles' primary food source. Dendrobates pumiliooccurs throughout the Caribbean coast of Central America. Other poison-dart frog species carry their tadpoles around as well. Note the tadpoles in the photo to the right. (Top photo of D. pumilio taken at Red Frog Beach, Bocas del Toro, Panama. Bottom photo is the Gulfo Dulce Poison Dart FrogPhyllobates vittatus on Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula)
Thought only birds built nests?
The Australian stony creek frogs Litoria wilcoxii and Litoria jungguy occasionally build a sand nest for their eggs. In the photo at right, eggs are in the center of the nest, which is immediately beside a stream. Thus the eggs are kept in a moist environment, safe from fish for the time being. The next large rain will wash them into the stream and they will emerge as tadpoles.
What's up with the 6-legged frogs?
Frog deformities have caused alarm since the early 1990's, when high numbers of frogs in the Midwest were found with missing limbs, extra limbs or other developmental abnormalities. Many of these deformations are caused by a trematode parasite Ribeiroia ondatrae that burrows into tadpoles' hind limbs. Why did the malformation rate increase so dramatically in the last two decades? This is unknown, but it may be due to increased levels of eutrophication (an un-natural state caused by excessive amounts of fertilizer entering a water body), which allowed snails that are used by the trematode as an intermediary host to increase in numbers, thus providing optimal breeding conditions for the trematode. Furthermore,pesticides have been shown to weaken frogs' immune systems and make them more vulnerable to trematode infections. The photo on the right is a 6-legged Spotted Grass Frog Limnodynastes tasmaniensis. Kind of cool, but in a not-so-cool kind of way. (Photo credits unknown).
