Reproductive plasticity revealed: Neotropical treefrog can choose to lay eggs in water or on land
Monday, May 19, 2008 - 16:28
in Paleontology & Archaeology
When frogs reproduce, like all vertebrates, they either lay their eggs in water or on land - with one exception, according to new research by a team of Boston University scientists who discovered a treefrog (Dendropsophus ebraccatus) in Panama that reproduces both ways. The neotropical frog makes a behavioral decision to lay egg masses aquatically in a pond or terrestrially on the overhanging plants above a pond, where the newly-hatched tadpoles simply fall into the water.