First Known Venomous Frogs Use Their Heads as Weapons
Sci-News.com
First Known Venomous Frogs Use Their Heads as Weapons
A team of scientists has made a surprising discovery about two previously known species of tree frogs from Brazil: they are actually venomous.
Venomous animals have toxins associated with delivery mechanisms that can introduce the toxins into another animal.
Although most amphibian species produce or sequester noxious or toxic secretions in the glands of the skin to use as antipredator mechanisms, they have been considered poisonous rather than venomous because delivery mechanisms are absent.
The frogs in question – the Greening’s frog (Corythomantis greeningi) and the Bruno’s casque-headed frog (Aparasphenodon brunoi) – produce potent toxins and also have a mechanism to deliver those harmful secretions into another animal using bony spines on their heads.
“Discovering a truly venomous frog is nothing any of us expected, and finding frogs with skin secretions more venomous than those of the deadly pit vipers of the genus Bothrops was astounding,” said Dr Edmund Brodie, Jr. from Utah State University, a team member and a co-author on the study published in the journal Current Biology.
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http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-venomous-frogs-corythomantis-greeningi-aparasphenodon-brunoi-03105.html
