LONDON: The first venomous frogs that use their heads as weapons to inject poison into potential predators have been discovered in Brazil.
The head-butting frogs have tiny spines protruding from the front of their skulls, which can inject poison that is more toxic than that of a pit viper, scientists have said.
Although some tropical frogs are known to be poisonous when eaten, until now none have been found with a “delivery mechanism”, and so were not considered venomous, researchers said.
However, two species of frog in Brazil have been found to be capable of injecting poison into their adversaries using head-butting spines as toxic weapons, said Edmund Brodie of Utah State University in the United States.
“Discovering a truly venomous frog is nothing any of us expected and finding frogs with skin secretions more venomous than those of the deadly pit vipers … was astounding,” Dr Brodie said.
The venomous traits of the two species, Corythomantis greeningi and Aparasphenodon brunoi, may have gone unnoticed had not one of the researchers been stung while handling the former – the less toxic of the two.
Brazilian Carlos Jared of the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo suffered an intense, radiating pain on his hand for a period of about five hours after handling one of the frogs while collecting specimens.
