Researchers say that a tiny frog amidst a South American forest has the ability of transforming its skin from smooth to spiky in a matter of minutes. This is the only vertebrate species that has been discovered so far to possess such a unique talent.
This shape-shifting amphibian has been found in a forest in Ecuador just recently, although its knack of morphing the texture of its skin went unnoticed for three years, as reported by the researchers in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
Katherine Krynak, a biologist from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, one of the authors of the study said, “We took a specimen back to the house in a cup to photograph it, and when we looked in the morning, we thought we had grabbed the wrong frog. We put the frog back in the cup with some moss, and soon, it had the spines again.”
Researchers believe that the moss, which is abundant in the frogs’ forest habitat, appears to be the major element for the behavior of the skin. When the creature is in moss, the skin turns rough with spikes all over it, and when it is away from the moss, the same skin goes back to being smooth.
The hunch that researchers have is that the frog, scientifically known as Pristimantis mutabilis, most probably has this mannerism to protect itself from birds and predators.
Krynak says, “The spines and coloration help them blend into mossy habitats, making it hard for us to see them. But whether the texture really helps them elude predators still needs to be tested.”
It has recently been found that Pristimantis mutabilis is not the only species with this rare talent, but a related species also possesses this shape-changing ruse.
Scientists are saying that given the fact that two species of frogs have this ability has great implications for the way species are recognized, suggesting that extensive monitoring and photographs should be taken into consideration for ensuring that one species of this kind is not involuntarily indentifies as two different ones.
A 3-year-long study helped scientists to find that frogs has the capability of shifting skin from spiky to smooth or reverse it back from smooth to spiky in a span of 3 minutes.
Formerly such abilities were seen in invertebrate species like octopus and cuttlefish.
The frogs’ cloudy habitat, called the Chocó cloud forest, is a protected bio-diversified habitat to numerous rare species, inclusive of birds, butterflies and this ultra-special amphibian.
