Bizarre Frogs Rafted Atop Ancient Continents

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Livescience.com (Utah, USA) August 6th, 2010 06:11 AM: Bizarre Frogs Rafted Atop Ancient Continents

Researchers trace Asia's geology through spiny frog evolution

Between 15 million and 55 million years ago, India and Asia collided, starting a series of geological events that raised the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau. Now, a group of well-muscled frogs is revealing how the continents moved.

"Geologists know a lot about that area, but what they haven't been able to do is give a sequence to the timing of the rise of particular mountain masses and particular ridges and pieces," David Wake, a herpetologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley and a co-author of a new paper detailing the findings, said in a UC Berkeley statement. "We use these frogs as a surrogate for a time machine."

Spiny frogs of the tribe Paini are often called stone frogs in China, because they cling to moss-covered rocks near rapidly flowing streams, the researchers say. When male frogs mate with females, they grab the female from behind. Frogs that live in fast-flowing streams have muscular forearms and sandpaper-like chests to help prevent slimy females from being whisked away by the current.

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