Aug-2015 The heads of these Brazilian frogs are venomous weapons

Two species of Brazilian hylid frog have been identified as the world’s first-known venomous frogs.

Corythomantis greeningi is one of the species in question, Aparasphenodon brunois is the second, both of which are frogs native to Brazil. These two species have been known to researchers for decades.

Jared and the other researchers mentioned that there are other varieties of frogs that also have bony spines projecting from their skulls.

Carlos Jared, a herpetologist at the Instituto Butantan in Brazil, discovered this frog’s venom first-hand.

He had undergone intense pain up the arm, which lasted for five long painful hours as another co-author Edmund Brodie Jr recalls.

Now scientists have discovered two species of frogs in Brazil that are deadly poisonous.

The venom released from the head of one of the frogs is so toxic that it could kill 80 humans, or more than 300,000 mice.

However, Bruno’s casque-headed frog has smaller spines than Greening’s frog, and may not be able to inject as much venom at a time. “Researchers imagine as a hungry predator closes its mouth over the frog, it begins shaking its head and jabbing the spines into every corner a frog’s face can fit”, Angus Chen wrote for Science Magazine. Though has much less poisonous venom, it has bigger head spines and bigger pores and skin glands that secrete extra venom than.

Researchers are now looking into other species of frogs that they suspect might be venomous instead of just poisonous, in order for better study. Frogs are actually among the most toxic in the planet.

Jared realized head-butting delivers venom only when he saw the frogs’ upper lips under a microscope. “Amphibians have a wide array of skin toxins that have been well-studied, but this sort of mechanism – transmitting the toxin as a venom – has not been discovered until now”.

“We have not experienced the effect of the venom of the most toxic species, and hope we do not”, Brodie said. When the animals attack, the skin contracts and the poison-coated spines protrude from the frog’s lip.

This find could lead to further discoveries of venomous frogs. “It moves the study of amphibian defenses to a new level”, Brodie said.

The study added that even tiny amounts of these secretions introduced into a wound caused by the head spines could be risky and these frogs are capable of using their skin toxins as venoms against their would-be predators.

There are venomous frogs that can kill with a single headbutt, according to the article that Jared and his team of researchers published online in the Current Biology journal.