Researchers Find A Frog That Can Change Skin Textures

Researchers have found a frog that can change skin textures, from smooth to spiny. The vertebrate, found in Ecuador is first of its kind, according to researchers.

"We took a specimen back to the house in a cup to photograph it, and when we looked in the morning, we thought we had grabbed the wrong frog," said Katherine Krynak, a biologist at Case Western Reserve University and an author of the study. "We put the frog back in the cup with some moss, and soon, it had the spines again."

Researchers also discovered that a related species of frog could change its skin similar manner, posing questions of how the trait evolved.

"Either these two different species from two different clades evolved the same trait, or all species had it and then lost the trait, or other species in this clade do this, too, and it's just never been documented," Dr. Krynak said.

The study was published in The Zoological Journal of Linnean Society.