A Frog with Antifreeze?

So, if a creature has no heartbeat, not breathing, is frozen solid, what is the likely medical opinion?

"He's dead, Jim."

Not necessarily. Some critters have been endowed by their Creator with certain ways of surviving in extreme cold. Why not? They have been enabled to adapt, else we'd have a much larger number of extinctions going on. A spell back, I posted about the "antifreeze" in the Eastern box turtle. There are also some frogs that have similar abilities.

Image credit: Modified from US National Park Service

The wood frog baffles atoms-to-amphibian evolutionists. Although certain times of year are just what a frog would cotton to, what with insects and all. But when the temperatures go below zero and it turns into a frogsicle, well, how does it survive?

During winter in Alaska, the wood frog (Rana sylvatica) freezes so that it looks like a frog-shaped piece of ice. While frozen, the frog stops breathing, its heart stops beating, its blood stops flowing, and it cannot move. However, when spring arrives, the frog’s body thaws and the frog returns to normal life. This is an amazing feat that would certainly be highly unlikely to have developed by chance. To restart the function of the frog’s systems after they have been frozen requires extremely complex genetic programming.

The adult wood frog, which grows to be only about 8 cm (3 inches) long, has an unusual colouration on its face that makes it look like it is wearing a black mask. The frog lives in Canada and also in the United States from Alaska to Alabama. In Alaska, wood frogs inhabit diverse environments, from grasslands to forests, muskegs and tundra. The wood frog is one of only three species of frogs that live north of the Arctic Circle.

As an amphibian, it is a cold-blooded animal whose body temperature tends to match the temperature of its surroundings.

How cool is that? To finish reading, hop on over to "Frozen frogs". 

 



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