Mr. Jacob Stauffer, a naturalist from Lancaster, Pa., sent in this drawing of a five legged frog that was captured in Conestoga, Pa (near Lancaster). It was featured in the September 13, 1879 issue of Scientific American. The extra leg seemed to be a fusion of two hind legs rather than a full-grown independent limb. [...]

A new study finds that frogs, toads, salamanders and other amphibians in the U.S. are dying off so quickly that they could disappear from half of their habitats in the next 20 years. For some of the more endangered species, they could lose half of their habitats in as little as six years. The nine-year [...]

Elephants, turtles, grizzly bears and some of the world’s rarest frogs are among the endangered species in the news this week. Worst News of the Week: Armed gunmen entered the Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site in the violence-plagued Central African Republic this week and slaughtered at least 26 elephants. The site is known as the [...]

Rhinos, cheetahs, gray wolves and frogs are among the endangered species in the news this week. Worst News of the Week: All of the rhinos in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park have been completely wiped out by poachers, who are now turning their effort to the park’s elephants. The 1.1 million hectare park is the size [...]

Two American zoos have helped to save an African amphibian from extinction. The Kihansi spray toad (Nectophrynoides asperginis) was declared extinct in the wild in 2009 after its only habitat, the waterfalls of Kihansi Gorge in Tanzania, dried up following the establishment of a nearby hydroelectric dam. But this month 2,000 toads returned to Kihansi, [...]

The frog-killing fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which causes the disease chytridiomycosis, has been blamed for about 100 amphibian extinctions around the globe since it was first observed in 1998, but clear information on exactly how it spreads has remained a mystery. Now a team of scientists working in Belgium have come up with one potential [...]

And then there was one. The last known Rabb’s fringe-limbed tree frog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) now lives by himself at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia after the zoo euthanized the only other member of its species. The euthanized frog, another male, had been experiencing a “marked decline in health and behavior” according to a Zoo Atlanta news [...]

Santa Cruz County in California could soon become the first county in the U.S. to ban the import, sale and possession of American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). Last week, Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark W. Stone sent a letter to the board urging it to enact a ban in 2012. Stone’s request followed [...]

Frog legs are still an amazingly popular food item around the world, including here in the U.S. According to a new report, an average of 2,280 metric tons of frog legs are imported into this country each year—that’s the equivalent of somewhere between 450 million and 1.1 billion frogs. Another 2,216 metric tons of live [...]

Around the world, frogs and other amphibians are disappearing due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution and the deadly chytrid fungus, which has already driven a few dozen species into extinction. But with critical information on many species still lacking, scientists can only go so far when trying to help save those in crisis. To [...]

Five “lost” frog species, including one not observed by science in the past 136 years, have been rediscovered in India. These finds are the result of the Lost! Amphibians of India project, a yearlong attempt to locate 50 frog species that have not been seen in India for many decades. Several of these species are [...]

We’re all excited by, and interested in, ‘new’ species; that is, those that have been discovered and named within recent years, with “recent years” variously being considered synonymous with “since 2000”, “since the 1970s”, or “since 1899/1900”. In the modern age, species discovered within the 20th century are generally considered ‘surprising’ and ‘recent’, and we [...]

Glassfrogs (or centrolenids) are a really interesting but comparatively little known group of anurans, you might have heard of them. Ha ha, just kidding – you know them well already since they were recently covered at reasonable length here at Tet Zoo. Since that article went live, I’ve been talking with glassfrog expert Juan Manuel [...]

Glassfrogs, or centrolenids, are wide-skulled, long-limbed arboreal little frogs (SVL 20-60 mm), unique to the Central and South American cloud and rain forests. Not until 1951 did this group get recognised as a distinct and nameable entity: prior to this, species within the group (known to science since 1872) had been classified as part of [...]

Back in May this year I visited the New Forest Reptile Centre (Holidays Hill, near Lyndhurst, New Forest National Park, Hampshire, UK). I’ve been meaning to visit for a long time – I think I last went there some time during the late 1990s – and the very hot and sunny weather meant that it [...]

Time to look at more of the frogs I encountered in Romania. In the previous article I discussed Western Palaearctic water frogs (the species of Pelophylax). Here in Europe, water frogs live alongside another group of ranid frogs – the brown frogs, the only frogs unambiguously and unquestionably associated with the generic name Rana. Well, [...]

As you’ll recall if you read my recent article on Yellow-bellied toads Bombina variegata you’ll know that I recently wandered about the Romanian countryside, hunting for frogs. You can never have too many frogs and, these days – what with the global amphibian crisis and all – you typically don’t. The good news is that [...]

I recently spent a bit of time in Romania, working with colleagues in an effort to find new Cretaceous reptile fossils. As usual, I can’t talk about what we found (yet. And we did find a lot). But what I can talk about is the modern-day wildlife I encountered while on the trip. Partly due [...]