Hidden claws found in frogs
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Talk about concealed weapons: Harvard University biologists have discovered that some species of African frogs can puncture the skin of their toes with sharp, hooked bones and use them as claws to fight off predators.
The previously unknown defense mechanism came to light when doctoral student David C. Blackburn picked up one of the fist-sized amphibians in Cameroon and got a bloody scratch when the frog violently kicked its hind legs.
He and colleagues reported in the journal Biology Letters that they later identified 11 species with the ability to flex a muscle that projects the sharp bone through the skin when threatened.
