Scientists in Borneo have discovered a lungless frog that breathes through its skin - a species thought to have been extinct for 30 years.
A research team, led by National University of Singapore biologist David Bickford, discovered the frog, Barboroula kalimantanensis, in western Kalimantan in August and published its findings in Current Biology yesterday.
The tiny amphibian, which has an average length of less than 40mm and weighs about 6.5g, lives in cold, fast-flowing water and breathes through its skin.
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Note: I couldn't find a photo of Barboroula kalimantanensis. The picture above is just a cute frog. Let me know if you find a picture of Barboroula kalimantanensis!
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that was great! thank you for posting that, it was so helpful becuase i am doing a report on frogs!
Hi Amberpond,
You’re welcome! I’m glad it helped you. I hope you made a good grade on your report!
Awww. Cutest frog ever! Thank you for sharing, frogs are my favorite, have been since i was a child. How cool they breath through there skin? Curious now…do you die when you breath out of your skin? does it still have a heart and all that?
I love frogs too. When I was a child, some of my favorite toys were these little plastic poison dart frogs my mom bought for me at a children’s museum gift shop. You can still buy them at a lot of gift shops like that.
The frog’s circulatory and respiratory system is really cool, and very different from ours and other mammals. For instance, their heart has 3 chambers, while ours has 4. I think the best way to understand the way theirs works is to first understand how ours works, so that we can compare and contrast them. I’m not a scientist (just a lowly marketing student) so I might get some things wrong, but this is how I understand it:
We humans inhale oxygen from the air using our lungs. Our lungs absorb the oxygen and pass it into the red blood cells in our veins, which then send the oxygenated blood to the heart, and when the heart pumps it sends the oxygenated blood through arteries to all our tissues, muscles, and organs. The tissues, muscles, and organs remove the oxygen from the red blood cells so that they can use it, and the red blood cells pick up carbon dioxide. Then this deoxygenated blood, now traveling in arteries, flows back to the lungs so that it can drop off the carbon dioxide and pick up more oxygen. The veins send this oxygenated blood back to the heart, and the cycle continues.
Now I’ll let Wikipedia take over to explain the frog: “The skin of a frog is permeable to oxygen and carbon dioxide, as well as to water. There are a number of blood vessels near the surface of the skin. When a frog is underwater, oxygen is transmitted through the skin directly into the bloodstream. On land, adult frogs use their lungs to breathe. Their lungs are similar to those of humans, but the chest muscles are not involved in respiration, and there are no ribs or diaphragm to support breathing. Frogs breathe by taking air in through the nostrils (causing the throat to puff out), and compressing the floor of the mouth, which forces the air into the lungs. In August 2007 an aquatic frog named Barbourula kalimantanensis was discovered in a remote part of Indonesia. The Bornean Flat-headed Frog (B. kalimantanensis) is the first species of frog known to science without lungs.
“Frogs are known for their three-chambered heart, which they share with all tetrapods except birds and mammals. In the three-chambered heart, oxygenated blood from the lungs and de-oxygenated blood from the respiring tissues enter by separate atria, and are directed via a spiral valve to the appropriate vessel—aorta for oxygenated blood and pulmonary vein for deoxygenated blood. This special structure is essential to keeping the mixing of the two types of blood to a minimum, which enables frogs to have higher metabolic rates, and to be more active than otherwise.”
I have read that even though frogs can breathe underwater, they can drown if they’re underwater too long because swimming uses up more oxygen than they can absorb through their skin.
Fascinating stuff, huh?
so suitttt
http://img.skitch.com/20080409-nntbqsw8d4y3u2tw7dke8buctc.png
Ha! Nice frog photo.
Thanks for passing it on!