CANADA: While the two helmeted tree frog species were previously known to scientists, no one knew that they – or any other frog species, for that matter – were venomous.
The frog Corythomantis greeningi has venomous spikes on its head that ship toxin to would-be predators.
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 snake, the researchers said.
The researchers also report a second spiky-skulled venomous frog, Aparasphenodon brunoi, not very close in evolution or geography to the first.
This might seemed lucky for the scientist because, the frog that injured Jared are less toxic of the two that the researchers investigated.
Jared, now at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, got his first hint of true venom when collecting yellow-skinned frogs (Corythomantis greeningi) among cacti and shrubs in Brazil’s dry Caatinga region.
It’s common knowledge among scientists that venomous frogs exist; however, the latest findings stand out as the only one that delivers venom by using spikes to deliver the substance to its victims.
The study, in the most recent issue of Current Biology found that a single gram of venom from Bruno’s casque-headed frog (Aparasphenodon brunoi) can kill 80 people. Researchers imagine as a hungry predator closes its mouth over the frog, it begins shaking its head and jabbing the spines into every corner a frog’s face can fit.
The researchers said that both frog species are not even remotely related, but there could be more venomous frogs to be discovered. “Intense pain, radiating up the arm, lasting for five hours”, described the co-author of the study Edmund Brodie, Jr., a herpetologist from Utah State University. Although new species of frog are discovered frequently in the most remote regions of the planet, none have ever been discovered to contain venom.
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