US Press: Legless frogs mystery "solved"

[John]

BBC Earth News, London, UK, Jun. 25th, 2009: Legless frogs mystery "solved"

Scientists think they have resolved one of the most controversial environmental issues of the past decade: the curious case of the missing frogs' legs.

Around the world, frogs are found with missing or misshaped limbs, a striking deformity that many researchers believe is caused by chemical pollution.

However, tests on frogs and toads have revealed a more natural, benign cause.

The deformed frogs are actually victims of the predatory habits of dragonfly nymphs, which eat the legs of tadpoles.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, researchers started getting reports of numerous wild frogs or toads being found with extra legs or arms, or with limbs that were partly formed or missing completely.

The cause of these deformities soon became a hotly contested issue.

Some researchers believed they might be caused naturally, by predators or parasites.

Continued: BBC - Earth News - Legless frogs mystery solved

[John]

I wrote the following on Caudata.org's thread about this press item:

"I'm sceptical - the poison gland reasoning is only valid for Bufonids, but most of the examples I've heard about are Ranids, most of which don't have these poison defences. This might explain missing limbs in toads in Yorkshire, England, but we need to see corroborating evidence from elsewhere in the world. I note that on the Wiley InterScience website (the publisher) and in ther paper itself there is significant use of the word “may”. In my opinion we need to see evidence from elsewhere in the world before we can all agree with Mr Walker of the BBC that the mystery has been solved. At that point I think we’ll see a paper in Nature or Science, or at least a higher tier journal than “Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution”.

Wiley have made the paper free to download so I’ve attached it to this message."

[adawinters]

I always wonder why each theory on frog deformities is presented as THE reason, rather than one, among many, contributing variable, each of which might cause the same end result under the right conditions.

[John]

It's all about drama and grabbing headlines. Journalism is some times the lowest form of literature.