Reproductive plasticity revealed: Neotropical treefrog can choose to lay eggs in water or on land

User rating: 5 / 5 after 3 vote(s)

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 in a pond or terrestrially on the overhanging plants above a pond, where the newly-hatched tadpoles simply fall into the water.


Full story »

All News summaries from General Science news
All News summaries for May 19, 2008