"Horror frog" breaks own bone to form claw


	"Horror frog" breaks own bone to form claw

Oortcloud

6-4-2008 12:14 PM

781 views

Oortcloud says:

Life is just full of little surprises. A hairy frog? Weird.

6 Comments |

Add a Comment

6-4-2008 12:48 PM

dstruve

OK no boner jokes

6-4-2008 2:35 PM

BartendingBear

That is the strangest frog I've ever seen.

6-4-2008 3:13 PM

Oortcloud

Check the site out for an x-ray of the bone in action. Very cool.

6-5-2008 12:37 PM

meancookie89

dude thats the scariest!

6-5-2008 1:17 PM

seaj11

No freakier than the horned lizard squirting blood out of its eyes to frighten away predators. It works!

6-6-2008 4:48 AM

jmjoness

wow that's weird. The claws puncture the toepads? Sounds like wolverine from xmen..

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ea5ff70b-e46c-4aae-9f23-dfbc493fb27e/D023F833-8575-49D9-A74C-387C7E624CA3/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_pic" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_pic" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_pic"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.newscientist.com/img/32D9D829-65A8-496A-8756-D9DAC9AFDF69" alt="Male Hairy Frogs grow threads of vascularised skin during mating season (Image: Gustavocarra / Creative Commons License) - More images below" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_pic"><P>"Amphibian horror" isn't a movie genre, but on this evidence perhaps it should be. Harvard biologists have described a bizarre, hairy frog with cat-like extendable claws.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_pic"><P><I>Trichobatrachus robustus</I> actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog's toe pads, probably when it is threatened.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_pic"><P>"Some other frogs have bony spines that project from their wrist, but in those species it appears that the bones grow through the skin rather than pierce it when needed for defence," says Blackburn.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_pic"><P>The end result may look like a cat's claw, but the breaking and cutting mechanism is very different and unique among vertebrates. Also unique is the fact that the claw is just bone and does not have an outer coating of keratin like other claws do.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10_pic"><P>"Being amphibians, it would not be surprising if some parts of the wound heal and the tissue is regenerated," says Blackburn.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D023F833-8575-49D9-A74C-387C7E624CA3/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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