Fanged frog
Boasting 'crazy' evolutionary adaptations, a new group of so-called
fanged frogs, cousins of this Luzon fanged frog, has been discovered on
the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, according to biologist Ben Evans.
During a recent expedition, 13 new 'fanged' species were seen on
Sulawesi for the first time, nine of them new to science, according to a
new study led by Evans, a biologist at McMaster University in Canada.
The 'fangs' aren't teeth but bony jaw protrusions, some of which
aren't visible past the gumline, said Evans, whose study was published
in the August issue of the journal The American Naturalist.
Scientists have yet to discover the fangs' purpose, but one
possibility is that the frogs use the spikes to help capture food in
fast-moving water. The frogs with the largest fangs seem to prey on fish
or tadpoles. Nationalonal Geographic |