Shape-Shifting Frog Found, Goes From Spiky to Smooth in Minutes
Dubbed the "punk rocker” frog, the marble-size amphibian is the first vertebrate known to change its skin texture.
Deep in the rain forest of Ecuador lives a very indecisive frog.
On a nighttime walk in 2009, scientist Katherine Krynak spotted a well-camouflaged, marble-size amphibian that was covered in spines. But when she brought it inside, suspecting it was a new species, Krynak found a rather smooth and slimy critter.
"I was so mad at myself! I thought I had brought back the wrong frog," said Krynak, who was surveying amphibian species in the Reserva Las Gralarias.
She hadn't. When she tucked a small piece of moss in the frog's container to make it more comfortable before releasing it back into the forest, the spines slowly reappeared.
"It was shocking. Vertebrates don't do that," she said. Inspired by
