nev

"The pumpkin toadlet, which is a frog but not a toad, is so terrible at landing its jumps that its sheer incompetence has become a subject of scientific inquiry." Sabrina Imbler reports for Defector:
https://defector.com/why-is-this-tiny-frog-so-awful-at-jumping/
http://web.archive.org/web/20220616125838/https://defector.com/why-is-this-tiny-frog-so-awful-at-jumping/

This passage elevates the whole thing to high comedy:

> Finding bug-sized frogs in Brazil is an arduous task. Even though a pumpkin toadlet is as bright as a Cheeto, the leaf litter teems with neon fungi and other orange-colored life. “It is extremely hard to catch underneath the leaf litter,” [grad student André] Confetti said. “Especially for me, because I’m colorblind.”

#science #biology #news #herping #frogs #jumpeing 🐘

Why Is This Tiny Frog So Awful At Jumping? | Defector

"They do nothing correctly."

Defector
Jun 16, 2022 at 6:31pmWeb
Show threadnevJun 16, 2022
> When Essner saw the footage, he burst out laughing. Then he immediately became consumed by the problem at hand. The toadlets were so far from the belly-flopping tailed frogs on the frog family tree, meaning the problem was not ancestral. So why couldn’t they land a single jump? “It wasn’t a ‘Eureka’ moment,” Essner said. “It was a, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ moment.”
Show threadnevJun 16, 2022
Since Ed Yong's been mostly on the COVID beat, Sabrina Imbler has quickly become one of my must-read science reporters—see their earlier pun-filled piece about gluttonous moray eels https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/science/moray-eels-eat-land.html
When an Eel Climbs a Ramp to Eat Squid From a Clamp, That’s a Moray

Moray eels can hunt on land, and footage from a recent study highlights how they accomplish this feat with a sneaky second set of jaws.

The New York Times
Show threadThe DoctorJun 16, 2022

@nev

<boiiiiiing....>

...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA <crash> <bounce> <bounce> ow! <thud!>

Show threadHerzleidJun 16, 2022
@nev The researcher's name being Confetti somehow made this perfect story even more perfect. 
Show threadwas B (this is my old account)Jun 17, 2022
@nev looks like a lot of the bug videos from the #AntLab 😹 https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCWxiO_Br1awgEjy79VItspQ
Ant Lab

Science and insect videos from Dr Adrian Smith at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences! Ant Lab is the channel of the Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences & North Carolina State University. It's headed by Dr. Adrian Smith, who makes most of these videos.

YouTube