On 10th April, 2008, the researchers announced at the National University of Singapore the discovery of a frog which has no lungs and breathes through skin. Mr. David Bickford, an evolutionary biologist at the University, told the acquatic frog, Barbourula Kalimantanensis, was found in a remote part of Indonesia's Kalimantan province on Borneo Island during an expedition in August 2007.
Mr. Bickford, who was part of the expedition, has revealed in his paper in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology that this is the first species of frog known to science without lungs and is only one of the few amphibians who have this unusual trait; the other are a few species of salamanders and a wormlike creature known as a caecilian. The lunglesssness was consistent in the eight specimens examined in the laboratory. It was deduced that the frog has evolved to adapt to its difficult surroundings, in which it has to navigate cold, rapidly moving streams that are rich in oxygen. Probably it needed buoyancy in order to keep from being swept down the mountainous rivers.
This discovery will help the scientists in understanding the impact of environmental factors on the extreme evolutionary change. This brown amphibian with bulging eyes and a tendency to flatten itself as it glides across the water has closest relatives in Philippines which has lungs as do the other frogs.
The scientists during their two-month long expedition also discovered two new species of lizard and four other species of frogs.
Mr. Bickford, who was part of the expedition, has revealed in his paper in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology that this is the first species of frog known to science without lungs and is only one of the few amphibians who have this unusual trait; the other are a few species of salamanders and a wormlike creature known as a caecilian. The lunglesssness was consistent in the eight specimens examined in the laboratory. It was deduced that the frog has evolved to adapt to its difficult surroundings, in which it has to navigate cold, rapidly moving streams that are rich in oxygen. Probably it needed buoyancy in order to keep from being swept down the mountainous rivers.
This discovery will help the scientists in understanding the impact of environmental factors on the extreme evolutionary change. This brown amphibian with bulging eyes and a tendency to flatten itself as it glides across the water has closest relatives in Philippines which has lungs as do the other frogs.
The scientists during their two-month long expedition also discovered two new species of lizard and four other species of frogs.
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