Wild Things:
Life as We Know It

Honeyeater birds, sea slugs, tree frogs, and more

  • By T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Laura Helmuth, Abigail Tucker and Sarah Zielinski
  • Smithsonian magazine, February 2009
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tree frog

(Brad Wilson)


It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's A Frog?

Scientists from Zoo Atlanta and elsewhere discovered a new species of tree frog in the forested mountains of Panama. What makes Ecnomiohyla rabborum "spectacular," the researchers say, are giant webbed feet, each nearly half as long as its body. The mitts allow the frog to leap from its perch and glide to the ground from a height of 30 feet.

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Additional Sources

"Gourds afloat: a dated phylogeny reveals an Asian origin of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) and numerous oversea dispersal events," Hanno Schaefer et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, November 25, 2008

"Spectacular New Gliding Species of Ecnomiohyla (Anura: Hylidae) from Central Panama," Joseph R. Mendelson III et al., Journal of Herpetology, December 2008

"Cross-modal individual recognition in domestic horses (Equus caballus)," Leanne Proops et al., PNAS, December 15, 2008

"Convergent Evolution of Hawaiian and Australo-Pacific Honeyeaters from Distant Songbird Ancestors," Robert C. Fleischer et al., Current Biology, December 11, 2008

"Horizontal gene transfer of the algal nuclear gene psbO to the photosynthetic sea slug Elysia chlorotica," Mary E. Rumpho et al., PNAS, November 18, 2008




 

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Comments (2)

Very Very good artical!I found it very helpful. I had to read it over and over again! It was very interesting. I printed it out and showed all my friends! They thought it was very interesting too!

Please tell me if it was your publication that presented a story on gourds within the last 3-4 months. I think the title was something like_____________gourd capital of the world. Thank you

This was very helpful to me...



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