Apr 9, 2008

Proud Papa

Look at this proud papa with his clutch and two newly hatched froglets. Have you ever seen a frog more proud of his egg mass?

The male Oreophryne is a native to Papua, New Guinea. He is a devoted father, who embraces his clutch each night to keep the eggs moist and to ward off predators. As a father myself, I commend this frog.

As a sidenote, these frogs belong to the Microhylidae family, many of whose offspring bypass the tadpole phase and emerge from the egg as fully developed frogs. Can't we do this for humans too? Skip the whole teenager phase? The frogs don't know how good they have it. How 'bout it, science?

Thanks for the photo, Aaron.

Photo source: National Geographic

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

As far as I'm informed, the microhylid frogs don't really bypass their entire tadpole phase, they just pass through it while still in the egg. Some teenagers have been known to do a similar thing by pupating in front of a computer screen.

Anonymous said...

Some teenagers have been known to do a similar thing by pupating in front of a computer screen.

So true... I know some of them personally. ^_^

How do froglets merit an "ugly" classification, though? I think they're particularly CUTE!

Anonymous said...

"Some teenagers have been known to do a similar thing by pupating in front of a computer screen."

Ah so, that's what my brother is doing.

For some reason, I want to offer Father Frog a tissue...and maybe a hit of penicillin.

Anonymous said...

How about then include this little frog? No lungs - no smoking :D

~Story said...

I too think these frog bebehs are very not ugly, and infact, CUTE!!!
I recommend sending them off to cuteoverload.com STAT!!

Anonymous said...

i second...or rather, third that! the papa frog is beautiful, and those froglets...remind me of bath bubbles, personally. but they're super cute.

Anonymous said...

I think papa is kinda ugly for sure, but the babes are cute! With alot of ugly potential ;)