EUROPE: In the wilds of Brazil, researchers have discovered frogs with venomous spikes on their heads.
Although scientists have long known of poisonous frogs, these are the first venomous frogs — that is, they not only secrete poison, but are armed with weapons that can deliver this poison into victims.
Most amphibians, such as frogs, newts and salamanders, concentrate or secrete poisons in skin glands to ward off predators. Frogs include some of the most toxic animals on Earth — for instance, the 2-inch-long (5-centimeter) golden poison dart frog has enough toxin to kill 10 grown men, and the indigenous Emberá people of Colombia have used its poison for centuries in blowgun darts.
Now scientists have discovered — the hard way — two species of Brazilian frog that are venomous. One researcher, study lead author Carlos Jared at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, injured his hand on bony spines on the head of the frog Corythomantis greeningi, which lives in savannas in eastern Brazil. [Freaky Frog Photos: A Kaleidoscope of Colors .
The result? “Intense pain, radiating up the arm, lasting for five hours,” said study co-author Edmund Brodie, Jr., a herpetologist at Utah State University in Logan.
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