Goofy Ahh Frog - Tumblr Posts
Footnote: Ahoy there! Feel like seeing more crap like this? Here is my current handle! Due to technical issues with the old one, I will be rblging the original MMM and CFF posts on this account, as well as continuing both series!
Creacher Feature Friday 8: So, Trypophobia Toads Are a Thing..
Last week, I recall, we took a glance on over at a frog so bizarre and special, it grew hairy gills on its back legs and broke its own bones to make basically Wolverine claws as a defense mechanism.
Guess what? I know of just the amphibian fit to top that weirdness👏
Full disclosure, though, there was a slight lie in the title of this. This feature does not actually center on a toad at all- it's another frog! A strictly aquatic dwelling one at that; nonetheless, it never stopped the unusual Pipa pipa (actual genus and species name, lol) from landing plenty of misnomer titles such as the Star-fingered toad, the common Surinam toad, and of course, the pipa toad.
P.pipa calls the jungles of the Amazon and much of upper South America as its home, where it lies in wait on the beds of flooded forests and low-flowing streams, ready to ambush the next meal that floats along. Interestingly, they also capture prey through a method known as suction feeding (i.e. slurping in a bunch of water along with the victim in one strong gulp), which is usually more associated with certain kinds of fish than most anurans. Guess when you don't have a tongue for gobbling your food up, you find your own way.
Something more quickly notable about them than their feeding habits is their.. interesting.. appearance.
I guess today also doubles as Flat Fuck Friday
In case you are worried, fear not, this is NOT the result of them being run over by a looney tunes steamroller. Just a natural way of camouflage, hoping you'd pass them by as a boring old brown leaf on the riverbed. And those little eyes are still functional, but for good measure this species also came packing a lateral line system (another fishy smelling trait, likely evolved to suit their lifestyle) down its back to help detect potential prey/predators while it lies flatly at the water's bottom like above.
If that's not enough "I'm not like the other frogs" for you yet, wait until you see them pregnant. I did not stutter. Pipa toads go about reproduction in a convoluted, literally skin crawling way.
To remember what "typical" frog spawning looks like, picture how the male piggybacks onto the female, they both release some gametes together in some pond, bippity-boppity-boop, tadpoles happen and are left to fend for themselves. Sometimes you get the odd parental species with males that might guard the eggs/young for a while, but frogs wholly are usually not the most invested caretakers, especially females.
Well, anything but usual, the pipa toad performs spawning with the twist of adding in a complicated series of acrobatics. As the released eggs are fertilized by the male, the he keeps his hold on his mate and brings the pair into a series of somersaults, where he uses his legs to push and stick the eggs onto her back. From courtship and on, the female's body reacts to this by growing a layer of skin over the developing embryos as they slowly meld into the outside of her body. This skin-covering eventually develops into something of a protective pouch that will shield the growing young all the way through their metaphosis from tadpole to miniature versions of the adult (one per each of those visible chamber holes). And after a long, 4 month gestation, the time finally comes for anywhere from 60-100 toadlets to be "born" and escape from their flesh cage for greener pastures and tasty eats of their own. Just as the beautiful circle of life intended.
Until further notice, this series crowns the PP toads as certainly, the frog of all time.
