Scientists were surprised with findings of a recent study that reveals many animal species believed to persist in small contained areas actually need broad, landscape level conservation to survive.
With more species at risk of extinction today than any other time in human history, the findings of the study published in the debut issue of Conservation [...]
It is widely known that the right and left hemispheres of the brain perform different tasks. Lesions to the left hemisphere typically bring impairments in language production and comprehension, while lesions to the right hemisphere give rise to deficits in the visual-spatial perception, such as the inability to recognize familiar faces.
In the last few years, [...]
A toad sits at a pond’s edge eyeing a cricket on a blade of grass. In the blink of an eye, the toad snares the insect with its tongue. This deceptively simple, remarkably fast feeding action offers a new look at how muscles work.
This fresh perspective could lead to designing more efficient electric motors, better [...]
Continue reading about Toad Research Could Leapfrog To New Muscle Model
When frogs reproduce, like all vertebrates, they either lay their eggs in water or on land — with one exception, according to new research by a team of Boston University scientists who discovered a treefrog (Dendropsophus ebraccatus) in Panama that reproduces both ways. The neotropical frog makes a behavioral decision to lay egg masses aquatically [...]
The description of an ancient amphibian that millions of years ago swam in quiet pools and caught mayflies on the surrounding land in Texas has set to rest one of the greatest current controversies in vertebrate evolution. The discovery was made by a research team led by scientists at the University of Calgary.
The examination and [...]
Most female frogs don’t call; most lack or have only rudimentary vocal cords. A typical female selects a mate from a chorus of males and then –silently — signals her beau. But the female concave-eared torrent frog, Odorrana tormota, has a more direct method of declaring her interest: She emits a high-pitched chirp that to [...]
Continue reading about Female Concave-eared Frogs Draw Mates With Ultrasonic Calls
New research on cane toads in Northern Australia has discovered a way to control the cane toad invasion using parasites and toad communication signals.
Professor Rick Shine from the University of Sydney has been studying the biology of cane toads, and will reveal his new research May 7 at the Academy of Science’s peak annual event [...]
Continue reading about Biological Weapons To Control Cane Toad Invasion In Australia
Nearly 35% of all amphibians are now threatened of extinction raising them to the position of the most endangered group of animals in the world. Decline of amphibian populations and species is ongoing due to habitat loss, fungal disease, climate shift and agrochemical contaminants. These impacts are even worse to frogs that reproduce in water [...]
Continue reading about Priority Regions For Threatened Frog And Toad Conservation In Latin America
Researchers discovered a legless lizard and a tiny woodpecker along with 12 other suspected new species in Brazil’s Cerrado, one of the world’s 34 biodiversity conservation hotspots.
The Cerrado’s wooded grassland once covered an area half the size of Europe, but is now being converted to cropland and ranchland at twice the rate of the neighboring [...]
Continue reading about Legless Lizard And Tiny Woodpecker Among New Species Discovered In Brazil
When frogs hit the road, many croak. Researchers found more than 65 animal species killed along a short stretch of roads in a Midwestern county. Nearly 95 percent of the total dead were frogs and other amphibians, suggesting that road-related death, or road-kill, possibly contributes to their worldwide decline, a trend that has concerned and [...]
Continue reading about Road Kill Losses Add Up, Taxing Amphibians And Other Animals
