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201231Oct13:10

Cli­mate change may alter amphib­ian evolution

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 31 Octo­ber 2012 | mod­i­fied 04 Decem­ber 2012
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TreefrogMost of the more than 6,000 species of frogs in the world lay their eggs in water. But many trop­i­cal frogs lay their eggs out of water. This behav­iour pro­tects the eggs from aquatic preda­tors, such as fish and tad­poles, but also increases their risk of dry­ing out. Justin Tou­chon, post-​doctoral fel­low at the Smith­son­ian Trop­i­cal Research Insti­tute, dis­cov­ered that cli­mate change in Panama may be alter­ing frogs’ course of evo­lu­tion.

By analysing long-​term rain­fall data col­lected by the Panama Canal Author­ity, Tou­chon dis­cov­ered that rain­fall pat­terns are chang­ing just as climate-​change mod­els pre­dict. “Over the past four decades, rain­fall has become more spo­radic dur­ing the wet sea­son,” said Tou­chon. “The num­ber of rainy days decreased, and the num­ber of gaps between storms increased.”

The eggs of the pant­less tree frog, Den­drop­so­phus ebrac­ca­tus, are extremely sus­cep­ti­ble to dry­ing. The embryos die within a day when there is no rain. Heavy rains trig­ger breed­ing, so as storms become spo­radic, the chance of rain within a day of being laid decrease and so does egg sur­vival. As weather pat­terns have changed, the advan­tage of lay­ing eggs out of water has decreased, not only for pant­less tree frogs but poten­tially for many species.

Pant­less tree frogs can switch between lay­ing eggs in water or on leaves, so they may weather the changes we are see­ing in rain­fall bet­ter than other species that have lost the abil­ity to lay eggs in water. Being flex­i­ble in where they put their eggs gives them more options and allows them to make deci­sions in a given habi­tat that will increase the sur­vival of their offspring
(Justin Tou­chon, Smith­son­ian Trop­i­cal Research Insti­tute, post-​doctoral fel­low)


The above news item is reprinted from mate­ri­als avail­able at Smith­son­ian Sci­ence. Orig­i­nal text may be edited for con­tent and length.
(Source: Smith­son­ian Sci­ence, 24.10.2012)

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