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A species of South American toad was silent for 100 years. Then it chirped

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3 years ago

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A species of South American toad was silent for 100 years. Then it chirped
It was, in fact, a type of brown toad with rough skin called Rhinella festae that has a prominent nose and had been considered mute since it was first discovered 100 year ago. Ecuadoran biologist Jorge Brito was trekking through the forest when he heard what he thought was the chirp of a cricket.

What he found changed a century of scientific belief. “At first I thought it was some sort of cricket out there vocalizing, but then I paid attention,” said Brito, from Ecuador’s national biodiversity institute. It was, in fact, a type of brown toad with rough skin called Rhinella festae that has a prominent nose and had been considered mute since it was first discovered 100 year ago.

“While it did not inflate its vocal sack, you could see a small flicker” on its chin, said Brito. He caught it and took it to a laboratory to study with his colleague Diego Batallas. “The first time I heard it, I said: Wow, that’s not the sound of a toad, it’s like a little bird,” Batalla told AFP.

The toad, which measures between 45 and 68 millimeters in length, lives in the mountainous Ecuadoran regions of Cutucu and Condor, extending over the border into the Amazonian region of Peru. The discovery was first reported in February in Neotropical Biodiversity magazine, where Brito and Batallas described the sound made by the toad.

“It is the first time this unique song of the Rhinella festae has been recorded and it’s surprising because it shouldn’t sing,” Batallas told AFP. The toad does not have the vocal sack that allows most amphibians to amplify their calls so that they can be heard up to one kilometer away. “The fact that this species can sing (without the vocal sack) makes it unique,” added Batallas, who used to sing in a choir.

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Batallas said that the faint sound emitted by the Rhinella festae demonstrates that some species of amphibians could have evolved in such a way — perhaps as an anti-predator measure — as to “not need their song to be heard very far away.”

In the case of the Rhinella festae, it emits a sound as a greeting, whereas other species of toad croak as part of a mating ritual or as a warning.

“It’s a very subtle sound and very difficult to hear in nature.”

Ecuador has registered 658 different species of amphibians, of which 623 are toads or frogs and almost 60 percent of those are at risk or in danger of disappearing.

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Only Brazil and Colombia have more species of amphibians than Ecuador.

For Detailed News: Hindustan Times

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Nasa’s old map of Jupiter, which reminds many of dosa, has gone viral once more

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2 years ago

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May 25, 2022

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Nasa’s old map of Jupiter, which reminds many of dosa, has gone viral once more

Certain images or videos frequently resurface on the Internet, leaving people speechless. When those clips or pictures are shared again on one social media platform or another, they create a buzz. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) created and posted this image of a map of Jupiter online a few years ago. After being shared on Twitter, the image drew a lot of attention this time. And, as usual, the image made people think of dosa, a popular South Indian dish.

The image was shared by the Twitter account Latest in Space. “From the very bottom of Jupiter, I’m looking up. While tweeting the image, they wrote, “Seen by NASA Cassini.” The images from the Cassini spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera were used to create this out-of-this-world image, which is part of a coloured map series produced by the space agency.

The article was published a few days ago. The tweet has received nearly 20,000 likes since it was shared, and the number is growing. The tweet has been retweeted more than 2,000 times. Take a look at some of the comments to see how the image of Jupiter looks like dosa.

A Twitter user commented, “Looks like a designer dosa.” “When I rush to pick up a call, this is what happens to my dosa on the dosa pan,” one joked. “This is how my mother makes Dosa,” a third said. “Jupiter in the making,” wrote a fourth, along with a photo of someone preparing – you guessed it – dosa.

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