#mark scherz

[damnbluewires]

fog

[dreaming-notsleeping]

Newest contender for the world's smallest vertebrate. The Brazilian flea toad (actually a frog) was first described in 2011 but since them more have been examined. The male is slightly smaller than the female, averaging just over 7mm.

"At such small scales, frogs develop strange anatomical quirks, such as losing toes or having such underdeveloped ears that they can’t hear their own suitors’ songs. Some species can hardly jump because their balance organs are so wee."

[alberto-balsalm]

(for context)

[rovermcfly]

tumblr leadership: we need INFLUENCERS we need CELEBRITIES we need this site to become MARKETABLE

tumblr users: there's a frog scientist on here and we worship him

[markscherz]

Episode 22 of the SquaMates podcast, featuring yours truly and three other reptile and amphibian nerds, is streaming now over on YouTube!!

You can also get it on Apple Podcasts and other apps! We hope you like it!

[kazieka]

what if i didn't want to see frog butt cheeks

listen if you come into my house where we are celebrating the tiny ass cheeks of the world’s most underappreciated amphibians and you overturn our table of snacks and proclaim your hatred for very very very small booty cheeks then we are obligated to beat you to insensibility. with frog buttcheeks.

[herpsandbirds]

I read somewhere that rain frogs are mostly muscle, is this true? Extremely curious about their anatomy so I'm wondering if you have any insight as to why/how they are so round!

Black Rain Frog (Breviceps fuscus), family Brevicipitidae, endemic to South Africa

photograph by Brittany Raine | Nature ~ Adventure ~ Photography | (@brittle_sees)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, you are correct, Rain Frogs are actually not altogether that fat... they're just shaped like that. They actually do have quite a lot of muscle mass for their size.

Having a round, compact body seems to allow for better, more efficient, burrowing.

You see, that "fat", round body again and again in different groups of burrowing frogs, like many of the Microhylidae and the Spadefoots. This group of frogs does seem to be the ultimate in roundness though!

For a more technical explanation of how they're structured, check out Mark Scherz's recent post about the subject...

The Travelling Taxonomist - Why are rain frogs so round? What's /inside/ of... (tumblr.com)

Desert Rain Frog (Breviceps macrops), family Brevicipitidae, South Africa

A few herpetologists are now including rain frogs (and their close relatives) in the family Hemisotidae, as the subfamily Brevicipitinae. I am not, though the 2 families are now considered to be very closely related.

photograph by Tyrone Ping Tyrone Ping - Exploring Southern African Herpetofauna

[sixteenseveredhands]

Namib Sand Geckos: these nocturnal geckos have biofluorescent markings that emit a bright, neon-green glow when exposed to the moonlight

This species (Pachydactylus rangei) is found only in the Namib Desert, which stretches across Namibia, Angola, and South Africa; the geckos typically inhabit the arid, coastal region known as the Skeleton Coast.

In order to escape from the blistering heat of the desert, they use their webbed feet to burrow down into the sand during the day, and then emerge only at night, when the temperature has finally dropped. The webbing on their feet also enables them to run more easily across the dunes.

Namib sand geckos are covered in translucent scales, but they also have a strangely colorful appearance, as the colors/shades of their circulatory system, spinal column, internal organs, and optical membranes remain partially visible through the skin, producing various shades of pink, dark blue, purple, magenta, orange, and yellow.

They also have several distinctive markings running along their lower flank and encircling their eyes; these markings are known to fluoresce when exposed to UV light (including moonlight), emitting a bright, neon-green glow.

Some researchers have theorized that the biofluorescent markings may act as a signal to other geckos, allowing them to locate one another in the vast, desolate expanse of the desert, as this paper explains:

The fluorescent areas of P. rangei are concentrated around the eyes and along the lower flanks. This positioning is practically invisible to predators with a higher perspective (e.g. birds and jackals), but highly conspicuous from a gecko’s perspective. As P. rangei is sociable but generally solitary, and occurs at low population densities, such a signal might serve to locate conspecifics over greater distances ...

Encounters in P. rangei might serve purposes beyond mating opportunities: as the Namib desert has extremely low precipitation, fog is a key water source for its flora and fauna. Fog condenses on the bodies of the geckos, and they lick it from their faces. In husbandry, we have observed individuals licking water from conspecifics, taking advantage of a much greater available surface area.

Additionally, after short periods of isolation, the geckos run to meet each other. The combination of vital hydration with socialisation might reinforce signals that enable such meetings, and the cost of visibility to predators with higher vantage points, might constrain the signals to regions best visible from eye-level and below.

The Namib sand gecko is the only terrestrial vertebrate that is known to use an iridophore-based form of biofluorescence (you can find a more detailed explanation of that mechanism in the article mentioned above). The fluorescent dermal markings are also unique to this species.

Sources & More Info:

Scientific Reports: Neon-green fluorescence in the desert gecko Pachydactylus rangei caused by iridophores

Animal Diversity Web: Pachydactylus rangei

Dr. Mark D. Scherz's Blog: A Neon-Green Glowing Gecko!

Australian Geographic: Skeleton Coast - Namibia's strange desert dwellers

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The World’s Smallest Vertebrate Is a Tiny Brazilian Frog, Study Finds

Adult male Brazilian flea toads are just over 7 millimeters long on average, and females measure about 8.15 millimeters

A tiny frog endemic to the state of Bahia on Brazil’s Atlantic coast may have just earned the title of the smallest vertebrate in the world.

The Brazilian flea toad, or Brachycephalus pulex, was first discovered in 2011—and despite its name, it is technically a frog, not a toad. Researchers immediately suspected the creature could break the record for the tiniest frog—and vertebrate—on Earth, but it wasn’t until a new study that scientists systematically measured the lengths of the species’ males and females.

The male frogs, which are smaller, measured 7.10 millimeters long on average, the team reported this month in the journal Zoologica Scripta. An earlier study of the frog Paedophryne amauensis, the previous record holder, found that its males averaged 7.70 millimeters in length.

“It’s absolutely clear,” Mark Scherz, an evolutionary biologist at the Natural History Museum of Denmark who did not contribute to the findings, tells New Scientist’s Jake Buehler. “These really are potentially the smallest extant frogs in the world, which is astonishing.”

Continue reading.

[werewolf-transgenderism]

🐸🌼

this is mini mum of the mini genus (also contains mini ature and mini scule), very tiny and what a great name

(photo © 2019 Mark D. Scherz and Andolalao Rakotoarison)

[corvidaeus]

i feel like having mark scherz comment on your frog post is one of the top tumblr celebrity interactions

[jartitameteneis]

¡LAS BALLENAS TIENEN MANOS!

Un grupo de científicos diseccionaron una ballena varada en Dinamarca y expusieron su extremidad pentadáctil, la cual contiene "dedos" ocultos en las aletas.

Estos "dedos" indican que las ballenas provienen de los artiodáctilos terrestres. Sus ancestros caminaban en tierra hace 50 millones de años.

A través del tiempo, los dedos se fusionaron y se ocultaron, adaptándose a su entorno acuático. Esta evolución transformó las extremidades para la natación.

Estos "dedos" evidencian cómo los animales evolucionan y se adaptan. Además, demuestra conexiones sorprendentes entre distintas formas de vida.

A pesar de su adaptación acuática, las ballenas conservan huellas de su origen terrestre en sus aletas, un testimonio biológico impactante.

Fotografía de Mark D. Scherz.

[hapalopus]

Was anyone gonna tell me Mark Scherz works 2 minutes from my current lecture halls and that I probably walk past his office several times a week?????

[markscherz]

Is there any frog species you have a grudge against?

Meet Gephyromantis (Phylacomantis) pseudoasper

Peak calling activity? Between 3 and 4 am 😡

Its preferred perch? The canvas of my tent 🙃

The decibels of its call? Jet-engine levels 🫨

The sound? Fuckin' Star Wars lasers.

[balls-haver]

All my homies love Mark Scherz🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

DNI IF UR A MARK SCHERZ HATERRR!!

[marmorenshud]

I think mark scherz should be the new neil gaiman and not just bc im danish