Trivia question for Jan-20-2011

Olivia found a very interesting guy for her trivia tonight.  We had no idea there were amphibians around which made such a peculiar noise.

Amazingly, the synthesised version of the skin from this frog is able to stimulate the secretion of insulin in pancreatic cells under laboratory conditions without toxicity to the cells.  This synthetic medicine is now used in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.  But that’s not the amazing feature of this aptly name frog.

For today’s trivia, we want you to tell us the name of these guys and what is so unique about them.

Good Luck 

Answer:

Wow, great guesses everyone but no one got it correct.  This is the Paradoxical Frog or shrinking frog, is so named because it grows into a very large – 10 inch long—tadpole, which in turn becomes an ordinary-sized frog, only about a quarter of its former length.  That’s right, the adults are actually smaller than their kids… image what that would be like for us.

These are not the only species on the planet that this happens too but there aren’t many.  These guys come out at night and are hard to find which is why there is not too much information available about their lifespan etc.   One cool thing these guys do is when you get too near to them or they feel threatened, they make a strange noise which sounds just like someone coughing.  Image being in the dark, all alone and all of a sudden you here coughing noises right next to you…. Creepy.

Here’s a little more information on these guys: Paradoxical Frog

Anyway, thanks for playing along