Frog Bladders Hunt and Remove Foreign Objects

[n2doc]

by Dave Mosher December 8, 2010

A bizarre discovery shows some frogs and toads can grow their bladders around objects lodged deep within their bodies, ultimately peeing them out.

Zoologists from Australia’s Charles Darwin University discovered the oddity after implanting frogs with tiny radio transmitters, which inexplicably migrated to the bladder. They describe their findings in an upcoming issue of Biology Letters.

“This is an extraordinary evolutionary trick,” said Rick Shine, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Sydney who wasn’t involved in the study. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we continue to find this ability in other animals. Natural selection has had a few hundred million years to solve tough problems organisms encounter.”


Christopher Tracy and his team came across the amphibian ability while studying heat regulation in Australian green tree frogs. The team implanted tiny radio transmitters deep in the amphibians’ peritoneal cavity, which lies just outside the peritoneum — a membrane containing the major organs of most animals.

more
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/frog-bladder-objects/

[Duer 157099]

1. Wouldn't it make slightly more sense for the colon to do this?

Peeing out a radio transmitter--no matter how small--sounds PAINFUL!

But now we know why aliens abduct human to implant their tracking devices in, instead of frogs!

[DCKit]

2. Just you wait until you have to poop out one of those alien transmitters.

Then we'll talk about pain.

Woo, woo.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. From what I remember of school biology, frogs have a single cloaca

for everything to come out of. Perhaps the gut lining would be more susceptible to damage than the bladder, as well.

On edit: the article explains why the bladder:

The intestines of humans and other animals, including sharks, reef fish, crocodiles and snakes, are already known to enshroud and expel foreign debris. But the handiwork of amphibious bladders was previously unheard of.
...
When a snake eats, its digestive system occupies most of the creature’s body cavity, Shines says, so it makes sense that the reptiles would use that organ to remove strange objects. Likewise, bladders take up most frogs’ and toads’ internal real estate.

“Frogs have a terrible problem with water loss, so one of their insurance policies is to have very large bladders, used as a kind of water reserve,” Shine said. “It’s a very plausible place you could slip an object to get rid of it.”

[Igel]

4. Okay.

This qualifies as the "weirdest thing I'm likely to hear all day." I have a six-year-old kid, I hear weird things on continual basis.

Many thanks.

[Kennah]

5. I have a nine year old who's memory is tied to weirdness

I'm going to share it with him, and risk a call from the principal.