Tuesday, December 29, 2009

How do frogs reproduce?


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Why: I pointed out that this poster from The Princess and the Frog is lewd because the frog isn't wearing pants, and also where is his dingle?
But Kat said frogs don't have dingles because they reproduce asexually, a la Jurassic Park:
The film said they used frog DNA to fill the gene sequence gaps. They mutated the dinosaur's genetic code and blended it with that of frogs. Now, some West African frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female, in a single sex environment. Malcolm was right! Look, life found a way!
Lol, frogs are amphibians.

Answer
: The male gets on top - he is smaller than the female - and grabs her around the trunk in a position called amplexus. The female discharges eggs into the water, and the male shoots sperm all over them. Frogs and toads do not have dingles.

As far as frogs changing gender:
It all boils down to the level of which genes are activated.
Studies have shown that the sex chromosomes are not necessarily the
determining factor. The traditional display of a female is when
an individual has two X chromosomes present. When one of these
genes is a Y, it is a male. This tends to be the case for most
organisms that sport individuals that are different sexes.

However, the Y chromosome has been almost always a male determining
chromosome, but with molecular biology and genetic engineering
techniques, a male can be made from a XX combination and females
have developed from XY combinations. These are extremely rare, but
they have given insight to the fact that there are other factors
beside X and Y chromosomes that determine sex, probably a gene
found in both chromosomes.

As far as frogs are concerned (and other organisms that display this
Phenomenon), apparently there are chemical triggers that respond to the
number of members in a population that will activate the gene(s)
that will allow for the disintegration of one set of sex organs and
the development of the other. This is an advantage to a species
whereby they have evolved the ability to assure their reproductive
success.
Source: Backyard Nature, U.S. Department of Energy: Ask a Scientist

The More You Know:

3 comments:

  1. Thank you, I hope you learned a thing or two.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now I remember learning that in 6th grade biology! Well, at least I was half right

    ReplyDelete