In January of 2015, the news was a abuzz with reports of a
recently discovered species of frog that allegedly gives birth to live
tadpoles. According to Livescience.com, researcher Jim McGuire was
walking through a rainforest on the island of Sulawesi, off of East Borneo
in Indonesia when he grabbed hold of what he thought to be a male fanged
frog, a species of frog that had been discovered only a few years
ago. But when he picked the frog up, it was not a male as he had thought,
but a female giving birth to live tadpoles.
"As soon as I picked her up,
she just squirted tadpoles all over my hand," McGuire said.Live
Science went on to say that McGuire didn't have time to film the live
birth but claimed to have discovered more tadpoles in nearby pools, which
was an indicator to him that there are species of frogs that do give birth to
live tadpoles. [1] Scientists hailed this discovery as being
something new, but the phenomena of live births among certain frog species
has already been known among herpetologists. While most frogs lay
their eggs before fertilization, males of certain frog species have been given
the capability to fertilize the eggs within the female before they are laid.
This causes the females of such species to
give birth to completely developed "froglets"; the eggs hatching and
the offspring metamorphosing before birth. The fanged frog was so named,
not because it has actual fangs, but due to structures underneath their lower
jaw that resemble fangs.
According to iflscience.com, "the
mechanisms employed by the frogs to achieve internal fertilization are poorly
understood." The exceptions, the article went on to
say, are two tailed frog species found in North America which use a
penis-like tail, an extension of the male reproductive organ, to internally
fertilize the eggs within the female before she lays them. [2]
But details from an article from
National Geographic cast suspicion upon the authenticity of the
recent find. According to phenomena.nationalgeographic.com, a branch
of the National Geographic website, the researchers discovered this phenomena
by dissecting one of the frogs:
"The researchers first
discovered this unusual ability while prepping collected frogs.
When they dissected some of the
females, 'the abdominal wall was observed to quiver, and incision resulted in
living tadpoles emerging from the opening.' " [3]
Had the scientific community and the media been
duped into buying into a fraud? Based upon the self-sabotaging National
Geographic source, a live birth of tadpoles never really took place, but
what may have taken place was that the dissection process caused a premature
birth of the creatures before they had fully developed into frogs.
The only way it could ever be verified whether the
fanged frog gives birth to live tadpoles is if an undisputed observation of the
event takes place. Evolutionists may be quick to cite live birth
phenomenas among animals that normally lay eggs as evidence in favor of their
theory, but from a Creationist perspective, that some frogs are able to give
what appears to be live births while most lay eggs simply shows that the
offspring of the live-birth frog species goes through a much faster development
process than the offspring of frogs that lay eggs, and what is being witnessed
can just as easily be a form of degeneracy amongst frogs as it could be an
evolutionary advancement, but degeneracy is much more easily explained by a
loss and corruption of information within the frog gene pool, than an
evolutionary advancement which would require the introduction of new genetic
information. The live birth phenomena witnessed in some frog species is
due to a similar process witnessed in certain species of serpents that give birth
to live young. In both cases, the embryos develop within eggs, but the
development process is so rapid that the young hatch out of the eggs while
still in their mother's womb.
Endnotes:
1.Tanya
Lewis, Staff writer, "Scientist Spies Frog Giving Birth to Live
Tadpoles," Live Science, December 31, 2014 http://www.livescience.com/49299-frog-gives-birth-live-tadpoles.html
2.
"Scientists Discover Species Of Frog That Gives Birth To Live
Tadpoles," IFLScience
3.
"New Frog Species Reproduces Like No Other," National Geographic,
January 1, 2015 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2015/01/01/new-frog-species-reproduces-like-no-other/
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