Trying2KnowMyself

Robert Mueller has not responded to a request for comments at the time of publication.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8001312

Scientists in Brazil described a new-to-science species of poison dart frog last year. It was first found among the leaves of wild banana plants on a research expedition to the Juruá River Basin in the western Amazon in 2023.

The frog, around the length of a paperclip (14–17 millimeters, or 0.5-0.7 inches), is reddish-brown and blue on top, bright blue with black spots underneath, and has copper-colored legs. It was named Ranitomeya aetherea, in reference to the word “ethereal.”

“We attribute this name to one’s feeling of enchantment and delicacy when encountering these frogs, as if they were from outside this world,” the study’s authors wrote in the species’ description.

The species has only been found at one site, where it lays its eggs in the small pools of water that collect inside plant leaves. This remote habitat is largely intact, with no immediate threats from deforestation or wildfires, creating a shield of protection from human-led activities.

This is in stark contrast to most other amphibian species, 40% of which are threatened with extinction. However, researchers stressed that biopiracy — the illegal collection and trade of rare species — and climate change are still threats.

The frog’s exact toxicity is unknown, but the whole Ranitomeya family is known to be poisonous, with toxins on their skin and bright colors to alert would-be predators.

“We know it’s poisonous to those that try to prey on it,” lead author Alexander Mônico, a researcher at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), told Mongabay. “But for us it’s fine, we’re able to handle them with our bare hands. We just need to be careful about any cuts.”

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7996654

March 20 is World Frog Day. Frogs and toads have inhabited Earth for hundreds of millions of years, but 40% of amphibians species are now at risk of extinction, according to the latest conservation assessments.

Every year, roughly 150 new amphibian species are described. But many are immediately listed as threatened or endangered due to habitat loss, disease and climate change.

“Some species may not even get named before they go extinct,” biologist Zeeshan Mirza told Mongabay in December 2025.

Over the last year, Mongabay’s reporters have covered pressing threats facing frogs in all corners of the world. Here are a few.

Rare galaxy frogs threatened by photo tourism in India

Seven rare galaxy frogs (Melanobatrachus indicus) disappeared from southern India’s Western Ghats rainforest after a small group allegedly spent four hours handling and photographing the animals, an anonymous informant reported.

Researchers studying galaxy frogs, named for their resemblance to a night sky, found overturned logs and trampled vegetation at the site where the frogs had lived among rotting wood and stones.

“These beautiful yet rare frogs are unlike anything else on our tiny corner of the universe,” K.P. Rajkumar, a Zoological Society of London fellow, told Mongabay reporter Liz Kimbrough. “This sad event is a stark warning for the consequences of unregulated photography.”

Endangered mountain yellow-legged frog reintroduced again in California

Conservationists released 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa) into Bluff Lake in Southern California earlier this year.

The species was once highly abundant in the region, but in 2023, there were fewer than 200 adults, even following several previous frog releases produced through captive breeding.

Non-native rainbow trout have decimated the species. Climate-driven wildfires and drought paired with a chytrid fungus outbreak have made their survival in the wild even more difficult.

“I think for most species, we’re really hoping for recovery, right? But in this case, we’re trying to prevent extinction,” Debra Shier of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance told Mongabay contributor Sean Mowbray. “We have to try everything in the conservation toolbox.”

Three ‘unassuming’ brown frogs described in Peru

Three new-to-science frog species were described in the remote Cordillera de Huancabamba in the northwestern Peruvian Andes: Pristimantis chinguelas, P. nunezcortezi and P. yonke.

Scientists behind the discovery found the species during a series of night expeditions between 2021 and 2024. They said satellite imagery from the area already showed habitat loss from fire, agriculture and cattle ranching.

“They’re small and unassuming, but these frogs are powerful reminders of how much we still don’t know about the Andes,” lead author Germán Chávez of the Peruvian Institute of Herpetology told Mongabay.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced staging the 63rd wave of its ongoing retaliatory Operation True Promise 4 in the face of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression, targeting oil facilities associated with the United States in the region.

The latest phase took place on Wednesday, following recent attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure, the Corps' Public Relations Office said in a statement. Staged "with full force," the 63rd wave also came in retaliation for the martyrdom of Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib and others during the aggression, it added.

The Corps denounced the “deceitful and lying enemy” for targeting the country's energy facilities.

By conducting the strikes, it added, the adversaries had also sought to exact revenge on the nation over the ongoing countrywide rallies it has been staging in support of Iran's Islamic establishment and in protest against the aggression.

'Attack on Iran's energy infrastructure took conflict to new stage'

"The Islamic Republic did not intend to expand the war to oil facilities and did not wish to harm the economies of friendly and neighboring countries," the IRGC said.

"However, with the enemy’s aggression against energy infrastructure, Iran has effectively entered a new stage of the conflict, and the necessity to defend the country’s energy infrastructure compelled a retaliatory strike against American-linked energy facilities."

Message to Iranian people

Addressing the nation, the IRGC declared, "Your brave sons in the Armed Forces immediately launched an offensive in response to the enemy’s malice, and through a heavy, targeted operation, set fire to a series of oil facilities considered to be American interests in the region.

The reprisal, it added, "inflicted damage proportional" to the one that had been imposed on the country.

Zionist targets

"As many as 80 military and military support targets" were struck in the southern and central parts of the occupied territories, including Rishon LeZion, Ramla, and Lod in the center; Eilat in the south; and Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak east of Tel Aviv, as well as Bat Yam and Holon south of Tel Aviv.

The targets lying in the south included a gathering of Israeli forces.

All targets were hit surgically using multi-warhead missiles and attack drones.

Warning to US, Israeli forces

The IRGC also issued a stern warning to the American-Zionist aggressors against repeating their strikes against the country's energy sites.

"If this is repeated, subsequent attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not cease until total destruction, and our response will be far more severe than tonight’s strikes.”

Operation True Promise 4 began momentarily following the launch of Washington's and Tel Aviv's most recent bout of unlawful aggression towards the Islamic Republic late last month.

The reprisal has hit sensitive and strategic targets in the heart of the occupied territories, including those lying in the city of Tel Aviv, the holy occupied city of al-Quds, the occupied port of Haifa, Be'er Sheva, which serves as the regime's technological epicenter, and the Negev Desert.

American outposts across the region, including those based in Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, have also faced intense retaliation.

The claim was followed by the statement that “They have no right to be doing what they’re doing” now that the USA has won the war, which he said he started out of habit.

I refuse to elaborate

because all I really want to know is whether, having subscribed and then unsubscribed from this comm via lemmy.ml it will continue to federate for some period of time, or whether having returned to 0 local subscribers means it won’t.

All I know is their logo goes hard, probably because I think it’s a frog

Keywords: elmo, burn, frog

Time to start compiling another of these, eh?

Comic. @Awoo@hexbear.net (do you want tags or recognition beyond the post links for these, even? Every time after the first one I think about not doing it, but then it feels like it’s weird if I just suddenly stopped). One. Two. Three. Requests?

Keywords: Gabital, Goblin (probably), Fantasy, Capitalism

#48 Strikebreaker

:sneeze-anakin:

:skye-padme: - smile, joy, grin

:chief-dismissive: - oh, you, smile, joy, grin

:new-hire-betrayed: - gimli

:new-hire-baffled:

:skye-mad: - angry, wtf

#49 Production Imitation

:falke-blush: - flirt, smile, joy, grin, crush, flushed, swoon

:minotaur-flirt: - smile, joy, grin

:success-cat: - sphynx

#50 Contract Work

:falke-let-me-at-em: - hold, back, mad, angry, wtf

:falke-outraged: - mad, angry, wtf, pog

:falke-outraged2: - mad, angry, wtf

#51 Talent Poaching

:gabi-cute: - admire, enthralled, happy, smile, joy

:falke-smug3: - happy, smile, joy

:smithworker-doubt: - worry, question, hmm

:cecile-blush: - shy, blush, bashful

:falke-conspiring:

:falke-brain-fuck: - Jackie, Chan, wtf, confused, what, baffled, huh

:smith-capitalist:

:gabi-thinking4: - hmm, thonk

:cecile-side-eye:

#52 Job Interview

:cecile-blush: - shy, bashful

:cecile-uwu: - shy, bashful, blush, point, touch

:new-hire-unamused:

:skye-unamused:

:gabi-unamused:

:skye-doubt2: - worry, question, hmm

#XX Pass-through expenses

:gabi-first-time: - James, Franco, Ballad, Buster, Scruggs

#54 Paper money

Uhhh, if you add this one, maybe come up with a better name? Or not. I’m not your boss.

:sphynx-golden-shower: - cat

I was going to wait for one more, but I’m already having a hard time loading my preview for the post. Oops.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10944631

as far as i can tell, hexbear users are seeing all content from grad including comments and posts but lemmygrad users arent seeing any content from hexbear, so if you make a post in a hb comm and arent getting replies this is why

---

Comment from @muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml suggests it’s an issue on the Hexbear sending side @CARCOSA@hexbear.net

My only thought reading the headline was “why are scientists researching this?” So, of course, the clickbait title got me to read the article.

No frogs, sorry

---

In storytelling, even small visual details can become unforgettable. In the globally popular anime "Demon Slayer," one such detail is the short bamboo muzzle worn by a central character. It looks simple and believable, just a piece of green bamboo tied across the mouth. But a new study suggests that this familiar object could not exist in nature as shown in the anime.

To investigate this, Professor Akio Inoue from the Faculty of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology and Innovation Research Institute, Kindai University, Japan, compared anime illustrations showing the bamboo muzzle with the structure of real bamboo. The findings were published in the journal Advances in Bamboo Science.

"I immediately noticed the awkward spacing between the nodes since I have been conducting research on bamboo for nearly 20 years. This intrigued me to conduct natural science analysis of anime bamboo and actual bamboo," says Prof. Inoue.

Bamboo culms are not smooth tubes. They are divided by solid joints called nodes and hollow sections known as internodes. In real bamboo, these sections follow a predictable pattern: the longest ones usually occur near the middle of the culm, while those toward the base and tip are shorter.

This arrangement helps the plant balance strength and flexibility, allowing it to bend without breaking. The anime version appears quite different. The central section looks unusually long, while the neighboring sections seem much shorter than would normally occur.

To test this impression, researchers analyzed 150 anime illustrations in which the muzzle was clearly visible and measured the lengths of its central and adjacent sections. These proportions were then compared with measurements from 112 bamboo samples from two common species in Japan (Phyllostachys spp.). The difference was striking.

In the anime illustrations, the sections next to the longest one were less than half its length. In real bamboo, adjacent sections are typically almost as long as the longest segment. Statistical analyses confirmed that the illustrated pattern falls far outside the range observed in nature.

The study investigated if the muzzle represented a different bamboo species. Historical records showed that only a few species were common in early 20th-century Japan, and their structural patterns were generally similar. None would explain the extreme proportions seen in the anime. Another clue came from the scale.

When compared with average human facial measurements, the muzzle appeared shorter than a real bamboo piece of similar thickness, further suggesting that the design does not reflect the actual plant anatomy.

"This research does not aim to criticize the manga work. Rather, it seeks to contribute to raising public awareness of bamboo and improving scientific literacy," says Prof. Inoue.

Because the analysis relies on simple measurements and basic mathematics, it could also be adapted for classroom activities. Students could study real bamboo culms, observe how their structure changes along the length, and compare those patterns with fictional depictions.

"Our study may raise awareness of bamboo among many people, sparking interest in the relationship between humans and bamboo," says Prof. Inoue.

At its core, the study shows how scientific curiosity often begins with a simple observation, noticing that something does not quite look right. By studying a familiar detail from a popular series, the research turns entertainment into an opportunity to explore plant biology and the mechanics of natural design.

the frog news is hopping today

When a new species is discovered, it's tempting to imagine an adventure novel, said Chan Kin Onn of Michigan State University. "Most people have this image of an intrepid explorer braving an isolated mountain or some other remote place, and stumbling across a creature that no one has ever seen before," Chan said. Sure, that still happens occasionally. "But most of the time it's far less glamorous," he added.

Instead, the vast majority of new vertebrate species are "discovered" by revisiting known populations with new data or tools, and showing they were more distinct than previously thought.

Chan is a herpetologist, a scientist who specializes in studying amphibians and reptiles like frogs, turtles, lizards, and snakes. There are more than 9,000 species of amphibians on the planet, and each year roughly 100 to 200 are added to the list, he said.

Take a group of little brown frogs from Southeast Asia called the Bornean fanged frogs, so called because of tooth-like projections on their jaws. One of them, Limnonectes kuhlii, has been known to science since 1838. But in the last two decades, genetic analyses have found that what looks like one species might actually be as many as 18.

"Animals that look similar but are genetically distinct are called cryptic species," said Chan, who is also Curator of Vertebrate Collections and a core faculty member in MSU's Ecology, Evolution and Behavior program.

Due to advances in genetic sequencing, "a ton of cryptic species are being discovered left and right."

To see if, in fact, these frogs had been woefully undercounted, Chan and colleagues extracted DNA from specimens collected across the mountain rainforests of Malaysian Borneo and analyzed more than 13,000 genes across their genomes.

According to their work, published Jan. 14 in the journal Systematic Biology, the frogs do indeed fall into multiple genetic clusters. But only six or seven clusters could be classified as distinct species.

"It's not just one species. But it's not 18 species, either," Chan said.

The question is more than an academic hairsplitting exercise.

That's because the world's frogs are in trouble. A 2023 study of some 8,000 amphibian species worldwide revealed that two out of five amphibian species are threatened with extinction, making them the most endangered group of vertebrates on the planet.

On the one hand, if we don't know a species exists, we can't protect it, said Chan, who was a co-author on the 2023 study.

"There are so many species in the world that we still haven't discovered, and that could go extinct before we can give them a name," Chan said.

"But there's a flip side to that coin too," he added.

Overzealously splitting what was once considered one species into multiples can create problems for conservation biologists, making the geographic range of newly described cryptic species seem more restricted—and their situation more dire—than it really is.

"We cannot possibly conserve everything, so we have to triage and decide how to allocate limited resources toward what we think are the highest priorities," Chan said. "We could be putting names on things that shouldn't be prioritized."

The researchers also found a lot of interbreeding between these different frogs.

"We found a ton of gene flow going on," Chan said.

All the DNA moving back and forth can make for blurry dividing lines. As a result, some of the growing number of cryptic species may be more methodological artifact than biological reality, he added.

The fanged frogs in Borneo show that species don't evolve instantaneously. "It's not like all of a sudden, boom. It's more of a continuum," Chan said.

Fanged frogs are by no means the only group of animals whose numbers scientists may have miscalculated.

Over the past two decades, genetic studies of animals ranging from insects and fish to birds and mammals suggest there may be a staggering number of species hiding in plain sight.

Where once the total number of species on Earth was thought to be 8.7 million, more recent models accounting for cryptic species suggest the true number may be anywhere from 7 to 250 times that.

So where does the true number lie? "This study shows that there's a speciation 'gray zone' that can make it hard to draw the line," Chan said.

---

ⓘ This user is suspected of really liking frogs. Send newts (or something like that).