Bizarre Frog Fact #3: This Frog Can Hold 50% Of Its Weight In Water.
The Water-Holding Frog, Cyclorana platycephala, is a weird Australian frog that lives in the desert and has a real thing for H2O. Whenever there's a severe water shortage (and hey, it's the desert...there's pretty much always a water shortage), it:
- Stores ridiculous amounts of water (up to 50% of its weight!) in its bladder and pockets in its skin - this water is acquired when there's a sudden downpour of rain,
- Uses its feet like shovels, and tunnels underground into the sand,
- Secretes a layer of mucus out of its skin, and then hardens the outermost layer, forming a tough outer layer of dead skin - a bit like wrapping itself up in Glad-Wrap,
- Stays there until there's enough rain to safely come out again. This can take years.
Nifty, eh?
More links about the frog:
Water Holding Frog: A Unique Creature
Database Entry for Cyclorana platycephala
FrogWatch at the Western Australian Museum
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ReplyDelete50% water weight in its bladder
sounds both painful and magical
Bladder AND 'skin pockets' as well.
ReplyDelete...
no actually, that makes it sound MORE painful.