# New Species of Dart Frog Found



## heckler (Dec 28, 2011)

Came across this today. Figured some people would like a read.

Mysterious New Poison Dart Frog Found; Is Size of Fingernail – News Watch


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## Dart girl (Sep 25, 2013)

Cool. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

Sweet! Seeing pics of a new species of dart frog is always cool

John


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## rhino43grr (Oct 2, 2011)

I just saw this news item somewhere else and figured there would be a thread about it here.

The video in the link left me with some probably stupid questions about the species that transport their tadpoles on their backs:

How do they get the tadpoles on their backs in the first place?

Do the tadpoles hatch with a natural immunity to their parents' poison? It seems inevitable that they'd ingest some poison if they're suctioned onto their backs during transport.


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## heckler (Dec 28, 2011)

rhino43grr said:


> I just saw this news item somewhere else and figured there would be a thread about it here.
> 
> The video in the link left me with some probably stupid questions about the species that transport their tadpoles on their backs:
> 
> ...


The tadpole "swims" up the parent's leg onto their back. As for the toxicity, I believe the majority of the toxins are released from stress as opposed to a constant layer of poison on the frog's skin.


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## Hayden (Feb 4, 2007)

Great news!


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## chuckpowell (May 12, 2004)

Does anyone have a pdf of the paper. I'd like to read it. 

Best,

Chuck


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## cml1287 (Mar 29, 2012)

rhino43grr said:


> Do the tadpoles hatch with a natural immunity to their parents' poison? It seems inevitable that they'd ingest some poison if they're suctioned onto their backs during transport.


It would seem as though the young already have a bit of the alkaloids present, even at a very young age. This seems to increase as the mother feeds eggs with the alkaloids present. 

From the paper "Evidence of maternal provisioning of alkaloid-based chemical defenses in the strawberry poison frog Oophaga pumilio,"

"We demonstrate for the first time that alkaloids are present in all life stages of Oophaga pumilio, including oocytes, nutritive eggs, and tadpoles. Alkaloid quantity and number increased with the size and age of frogs and tadpoles. The presence and increase in quantity of alkaloids in tadpoles suggests that females are providing chemical defenses to their vulnerable young via nutritive eggs."

So maybe they're not prone to the toxicity of the poison, even in early developmental stages.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

chuckpowell said:


> Does anyone have a pdf of the paper. I'd like to read it.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Chuck


Chuck you should be able to get a free access copy here http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2014/f/z03866p352f.pdf 
If you can't use the pm function and send me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you. 

Ed


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## tylototriton (Oct 10, 2008)

Ed, that's a trick copy! Haha. I fell victim earlier today. It's only the first and last few pages. Not sure why they did that. 

Cheers!
Alex


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

tylototriton said:


> Ed, that's a trick copy! Haha. I fell victim earlier today. It's only the first and last few pages. Not sure why they did that.
> 
> Cheers!
> Alex


Crud.... well its not as bad as it could have been. It has the discussion along with the abstract and the bibliography. It doesn't include the methodology so you can't review that for consistence but the discussion contains a lot of the important information. 

some comments 

Ed


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## froggorf (Nov 22, 2008)

Here ya go:
http://dna.ac/PDFs/Batista&l_14_Andinobates_geminisae_PA.pdf


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

Thank you, I'm definitely reading through that when I get the chance. I already skimmed it, but can't wait to get a better look

John


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