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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 03/17/2009 : 17:46:19
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Happy St. Paddy's Day!
While their English cousins were driven to extinction by the Ice Age, on the Emerald Isle, the European "common frog" (Rana temporaria) held onto life in a small redoubt in southern Ireland.
A Norwegian specimen of Rana temporaria, most unfortunately
in black-and-tan, rather than proper green. (Wikipedia photo.)
After the Ice Age, the island of England was repopulated with immigrant frogs from across the Channel. European frogs also arrived in Ireland, and bred with the lucky, hardy natives:Irish Frogs Survived Ice Age
By LiveScience Staff
Ireland is not known for its wildlife, as much of it was wiped out in the Ice Age. But the single species of frog that lives on the Emerald Isle apparently toughed it out during that extreme climate event while the same type of frog back on the British mainland retreated.
Research by scientists at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Queen Mary, University of London, suggests that so-called common frogs (Rana temporaria) on Ireland survived by hanging out in a small ice-free refuge there, while those in Britain hit the high road.
Frogs from mainland Europe repopulated Britain once the Ice Age was over, about 10,000 years ago, said Amber Teacher from the ZSL, who headed up the research.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/17/2009 17:52:36
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Irish frogs hunkered down through Ice Age
