Where was a nearly transparent frog species recently discovered?
A research team led by professor Masayuki Sumida at Hiroshima University’s Institute for Amphibian Biology has created a type of transparent frog whose internal organs are visible through its skin. The researchers say the see-through frogs can help in the study of diseases and in the development of medical treatments by allowing laboratory scientists to check the status of internal organs and blood vessels while the frogs are alive and without having to dissect them. According to Sumida, the transparent frog is the result of breeding two specimens of Japanese brown frog (Rana japonica) that had a genetic mutation giving them pale skin. By selectively breeding their offspring, the researchers were able to create a frog that remains transparent for its entire life cycle. Most of the world’s known transparent creatures live underwater, and transparent four-legged animals are extremely rare. The researchers also say that by fusing the genes of fluorescent proteins to the frog’s genes, they
If you’re a naturalist looking to leave your name in the history book as the discoverer of new animal species, maybe the Tacarcuna area of the Darien, a mountainous region near the Panama border, is the right place for you to start exploring. Scientists from Conservation International (CI) and Ecotropico Foundation (EF), who have been on an expedition in the area, have recently discovered as many as ten new species of amphibians, of which three are see-through frogs, perfectly able to camouflage themselves out of harm’s way. The area has one of the largest arrays of biodiversity in the world, as the international team, who has stood there for about three weeks, has managed to identify and catalog about 60 species of amphibians, some 20 different kinds of reptiles, and 120 types of birds, several of which are apparently only indigenous to the Darien region, and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Colombian authorities estimate that the country is home to more than 754 kinds of a
