Light Triggers New Code for Brain Cells

piggy submitted, created time 2 weeks 3 days (www.sciencedaily.com)

Brain cells can adopt a new chemical code in response to cues from the outside world, scientists working with tadpoles at the University of California, San Diego report in the journal Nature.

The discovery opens the possibility that brain chemistry could be selectively altered by stimulating specific circuits to remedy low levels of neural chemicals that underlie some human ailments.

Dark tadpoles don pale camouflage when exposed to bright light

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More habitat for threatened frog proposed

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 1 week (www.msnbc.msn.com)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Federal wildlife officials on Tuesday proposed more protection for the threatened California red-legged frog, providing up to four times as much habitat than was set aside two years ago.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommends designating up to 1.8 million acres in twenty-eight California counties as habitat critical to the frog's survival. The proposal must undergo sixty days of public comment and another review before it becomes final.

The designation would require any development project on the land to get prior approval from federal wildlife officials

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Feisty frog uses a move straight from the comic books

Ultrasonic frogs show hyperacute phonotaxis to female courtship calls

kavin submitted, created time 6 months 2 weeks (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Here the authors show that before ovulation, gravid females of O. tormota emit calls that are distinct from males' advertisement calls, having higher fundamental frequencies and harmonics and shorter call duration. In the field and in a quiet, darkened indoor arena, these female calls evoke vocalizations and extraordinarily precise positive phonotaxis (a localization error of

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Web Extra: First Frog without Lungs

jiangyun submitted, created time 7 months 2 weeks (www.sciencenews.org)

Maybe it's incredible. Looks like a frog. Swims like a frog. But doesn't croak. A flattened, brown, aquatic species from Borneo has just become the only frog shown to have no lungs.

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Frogs and alligators swim using flexible lungs

Darkfrog submitted, created time 8 months 2 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Almost any swamp movie shows alligators moving through the water without twitching a muscle. Turns out there is one muscle moving: the gator's diaphragmaticus, which extends lengthwise through its body and pushes stored air to one side of the body or the other, allowing the animal to tilt in the water. I don't wonder why this developed. It's probably easier to convince prey that you're a helpless log if you never move your feet or tail. Frogs do something similar.

And now the crucial question: Do crocodiles do this too and, if so, how do we tell them apart?

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Giant frog found in Madagascar

Mystery epidemic imperils frogs

Shrewd Snake Savors Deadly Meal