September 24, 2010

Fact #75: Squee?

I was listening to NPR at work the other day, and I heard this story about a group of scientists searching the world for lost amphibians. One of the species they're looking for is the Gastric Brooding Frog, which hasn't been seen since the mid '80s.

Naturally, when I got home I had to google the Gastric Brooding Frog. Actually, I forgot what it was called, so I googled "frog barfs babies" and then "frog vomits babies" -- both of which yielded results of gross frog stories, but not what I was looking for. I finally found the story when I searched for "frog babies mouth". Yeah, I rule at google.

In case you're not a link-clicker, I'll sum it up for you. The froggy mother swallows her eggs and somehow turns off her stomach acids while the babies are gestating. Then a few weeks later, she opens her mouth and up to 25 fully formed frog babies come hopping out.

I have a lot of mixed emotions about this.

First of all: WHAAAT?? She barfs up babies!! That is both disgusting and amazing.

Second of all:
Relatively speaking, having a baby the human way doesn't sound so bad now.

Third of all:
There hasn't been a documented sighting of this frog since 1983. That means it may have been extinct my whole life. It is utterly heartbreaking and tragic the kind of variety and natural innovation we lose when we destroy habitat.

Fourth of all:
She barfs up her babies. Barfs! Babies!

Til tomorrow.

1 comment:

Q Schroe said...

Wow. Animals are amazing. And weird. And kinda gross. It's too bad we are losing so many of them.

And way to rock at google, it's a good skill to have!