Wouldn't it be awesome to have this as a pet? It's like a fish-frog that can stay underwater indefinitely. (it looks like a cookie, lol)
"AKARTA (AFP) - The discovery of a rare species of Indonesian frog that breathes without lungs could shed light on how evolution works, a scientist said Friday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Dissection of the frog, which was found on Borneo last August, showed it breathed entirely through its skin, biologist David Bickford told AFP.
While many frogs breathe partially through their skin, the Barbourula kalimantanensis is the first to have entirely evolved away from having lungs, he said.
This runs counter to one of the key events in evolution, when animals developed primitive lungs and moved from water to land.
"Here is a frog that has reversed that trend, it has totally turned against the conventional wisdom, if you will, of millions of years of evolution," said Bickford, a biologist at the National University of Singapore.
The frog appears to have shed its lungs over millions of years to adapt to its home in the fast-flowing cold water rivers in the island's rainforests, Bickford said.
Cold water contains more oxygen, making it possible to breathe through skin, he added.
Only three other amphibians -- two species of salamander and a worm-like creature called a caecilian -- are known to have evolved to breath without lungs.
"It's like a cookie, it's almost completely flat. So initially when you pick it up in the water you know this thing is strange," said Bickford.
"It's surprisingly cute, you know, like a bulldog is cute. It's one of those things that is so ugly, it's cute."
While many animals have organs they no longer use -- such as the human appendix -- evolution normally works on the principle of "if it's not broke don't fix it," Bickford said.
"Most things we don't use don't get lost... so there had to be a big negative side-effect of having lungs for them to be lost."
Bickford believes lungs may have made the frog's ancestors too buoyant in the fast-flowing water, increasing their risk of being swept away.
The downside, Bickford said, is that the frog cannot survive on land or even in still water.
Indonesian scientist Djoko Iskandar, who accompanied Bickford on the expedition, first heard about the strange-looking creature 30 years ago and had been searching for it ever since.
He said that every time he went to Borneo he found habitats had been destroyed by industry, with pollution to rivers from gold mining apparently making it impossible for the frogs to breathe.
"We think that a little bit of pollution will affect the skin, and the skin is more important than for other species," said Iskandar, a scientist at the Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia, adding that even a small amount of pollution could be devastating.
Hundreds of new species of insect, animal and plant have been discovered on Borneo, with a find every month on average, conservation group WWF has said.
Other recent exotic discoveries include poisonous "sticky frogs," "forest walking catfish" able to travel short distances out of water and the transparent "glass catfish"."
None.
Interesting find, but you should put the article in a quote or else this will be locked or you will get fined. I laughed when it said it was like a cookie
.
Well, this may be the best find yet, now, humans can try to breathe like the frog, or die trying LOL
None.
Interesting... it took millions of years for evolution to realize that giving lungs to frogs was a mistake haha
?????
Interesting find, but you should put the article in a quote or else this will be locked or you will get fined. I laughed when it said it was like a cookie
No you won't. You only need to ensure the fact that it isn't yours by creditting and citing the real reporter.
None.
I saw this a few days ago. I thought it was interesting, since evolutionary theories are changing all of the time.
None.
Interesting find, but you should put the article in a quote or else this will be locked or you will get fined. I laughed when it said it was like a cookie
No you won't. You only need to ensure the fact that it isn't yours by creditting and citing the real reporter.
You are incorrect. Pasting a story from another website without putting it inside quotetags is an obvious attempt to get minerals. I did fine him.
Hope everybody learns from seeing stuff like this :]
None.
Interesting find, but you should put the article in a quote or else this will be locked or you will get fined. I laughed when it said it was like a cookie
No you won't. You only need to ensure the fact that it isn't yours by creditting and citing the real reporter.
You are incorrect. Pasting a story from another website without putting it inside quotetags is an obvious attempt to get minerals. I did fine him.
Hope everybody learns from seeing stuff like this :]
Awww...you're making me sad. :'(
None.
You are incorrect. Pasting a story from another website without putting it inside quotetags is an obvious attempt to get minerals. I did fine him.
Hope everybody learns from seeing stuff like this :]
Yeah. You just won't get fined in real lawsuits and real $$.
None.
I still don't understand why I was fined 10 minerals. I didn't know I was suppose to put the entire article in quote tags (I had it in italics w/ a source).
The people who posted afterwards even said I didn't need...and I edited it later by adding "..." around the entire article - just not the official tags.
???
None.
I still don't understand why I was fined 10 minerals. I didn't know I was suppose to put the entire article in quote tags (I had it in italics w/ a source).
The people who posted afterwards even said I didn't need...and I edited it later by adding "..." around the entire article - just not the official tags.
???
Because the minerals that you receive per-post are based on the post length (subtracting quotes). So placing the text inside quote tags ensures that you won't receive any extra mineral for something that you haven't writen.
I'm not sure if the -10 fine was fair, but that's the reason it was for.
?????
I still don't understand why I was fined 10 minerals. I didn't know I was suppose to put the entire article in quote tags (I had it in italics w/ a source).
The people who posted afterwards even said I didn't need...and I edited it later by adding "..." around the entire article - just not the official tags.
???
Because the minerals that you receive per-post are based on the post length (subtracting quotes). So placing the text inside quote tags ensures that you won't receive any extra mineral for something that you haven't writen.
I'm not sure if the -10 fine was fair, but that's the reason it was for.
Oh, ok. Well I'm relatively new to the forums, so I didn't know that the minerals gained is proportional to post length. That makes sense I guess...cuz I initially thought his statement regarding minerals was a joke.
None.
Try to stay on topic guys.
None.
NO U!
But, what would be the point of a lungless frog?
None.
I'll live by a Goldmine and soon my great grandchildren will be lungless if the family tree all lived by the goldmine. Who's with me?
None.
NO U!
But, what would be the point of a lungless frog?
Evolution has no goal and no final objective...it's a continuous process that sometimes results in weird sh*t like this. lol
I'll live by a Goldmine and soon my great grandchildren will be lungless if the family tree all lived by the goldmine. Who's with me?
lol, maybe you should live next to a uranium mine or nuclear waste deposit...that way it'll be faster.
None.
Common misconception, radiation causes rapid mutations, rapid mutations generally lead to: Deformities, Cancer, Mental illness.
Evolution works best slowly, that way it can cut out those doing the wrong thing before they do something REALLY bad.
EDIT: Sorry, I'm tired, I keep mistaking jokes for the truth.
None.
lol, maybe you should live next to a uranium mine or nuclear waste deposit...that way it'll be faster.
Yes sir! And I will shoot down anybody trying to clean it up.
None.
Common misconception, radiation causes rapid mutations, rapid mutations generally lead to: Deformities, Cancer, Mental illness.
Evolution works best slowly, that way it can cut out those doing the wrong thing before they do something REALLY bad.
EDIT: Sorry, I'm tired, I keep mistaking jokes for the truth.
Isn't being lungless mostly a deformity? Some deformities simply work
?????
