Weird And Wonderful Facts About Poison Dart Frogs

Weird And Wonderful Facts About Poison Dart Frogs

Deep in the forests of Central and South America some of the world's deadliest organisms lurk in these creatures contain such toxic chemicals that only a tiny dose is needed for them to kill a full-grown human poison dart frogs might be bright cute minuscule amphibians but they are absolutely Nature's version of Around and Find out just 2/10 of a microgram of poison could kill a human making this organism 100 times more lethal than the deadly inland taipan snake and there's absolutely no antidote to their poison no treatment to save you from a painful death and they're not exactly trying to sneak up on anyone through the use of camouflage in fact, they're downright flamboyant their colors serving as a warning to would-be predators the deadliest of the family of poison dart frogs are known as the golden poison dart frog and has enough poison on its skin to kill more than 20,000 mice.

All About the Poison Dart Frog: Weird and Wonderful Facts

This little dude who only grows up to 47 mm in size smaller than your thumb is absolutely covered in betco toxins this alkaloid poison causes complete muscle paralysis shutting down the heart the diaphragm and everything else within minutes their deadly sections have been used by indigenous people for poisoned blow darts since pre-Colombian times which is what initially gave the frogs their name. these poison darts are enough to drop monkeys and birds in their track nerve paralysis is almost instantaneous today. there are several hundred species of poison dart frogs spread across tropical forests in Central and South America besides the golden poison dart frog some of the other notable species are the strawberry poison dart frog whose name is too tasty for its own good and who has a varietal that is considered to be wearing blue jeans there's the green and black poison dart frog which looks like a chocolate mint situation and all of these frogs are the most forbidden snacks of all because among the hundreds of species are hundreds more types of alkaloids many of which are deadly some of which were unknown to science. 

Before researchers started studying these frogs and yet poison dart frogs don't make these toxins themselves they collect them from their prey arthropods like ants mites and millipedes but how is it that they can eat things that are full of such brutal poisons and how do these frogs avoid poisoning themselves and how is it that Predators know to avoid these tiny colorful frogs of death poison dart frogs are the only vertebrate we know of in which coloration toxicity and diet specialization all work together the combination of bright colors and poison is known as aposematism essentially the frogs evolved to be as bright as neon signs at the same time as they evolved into Harbor toxic chemicals their coloration is a warning eat me and you're in for a bad time interestingly when the frogs are raised in captivity and fed a diet of fruit flies they don't develop any of the toxins and if wild frogs are brought into the lab and fed a non-toxic diet they gradually lose their poison most toxic species of animals like snakes or jellyfish have the ability to produce the dangerous substances on their own a trait known as endogenous biosynthesis the ability to eat something toxic and harvest those substances for one's own protection is called sequestration and is pretty uncommon in the natural world.

Facts About Poison Dart Frogs, Who Are Tiny but Deadly

That's what poison dart frogs do and they manage it in ways we don't completely understand these frogs have two types of glands on their skin mucous glands and serous glands it's the second of these two glands that contain the toxic alkaloids themselves are organic compounds that contain nitrogen and they're not always toxic things like caffeine nicotine and quinine are all alkaloids and we found plenty of uses for them but the alkaloids on the skin of poison dart frogs range from making them taste bitter to mild poison to absolutely lethal poison however only % of the known alkaloids on their skin have had their sources identified in the cases where researchers have found a source for the toxin it's been through through the Frog's diet, one study found that strawberry poison dart frogs were getting a lot of their poison via orbited mites these tiny mites are related to spiders and scorpions but are only about mm in size and to defend themselves from being eaten they have their own toxic alkaloids unfortunately for the mites, those toxins are just what the strawberry poison dart frog is looking for the frogs collecting the alkaloids from the mites and move those same poisons to their skin and the more they eat the more poison they collect. 

In one case scientists found certain frogs protect themselves by changing the configuration of The receptors on their neurons by a single amino acid substitution this makes it so the toxin doesn't bind to their receptors allowing them to continue to function normally researchers have also found that the golden poison dart frog has Gene substitutions and mutations that make it immune to the effects of betco toxins and dozens of its other dangerous alkaloids but what we still don't know is how they managed to develop defenses against so many types of alkaloids.

Poison dart frogs: Facts about these deadly amphibians
Poison dart frogs have immunity to dozens or even hundreds of dangerous alkaloids toxins that they don't even produce themselves and these poisons are so deadly that the golden dart frog is considered to be the most poisonous creature on earth even just touching the golden dart frog could be lethal especially if you have a cut on your hand the poison could even be strong enough to enter through your sweat pores.

I don't think many people are willing to test that out to know for sure but considering that this poison is so toxic that it kills any would be predator the first time encountering it how do Predators learn to avoid this brightly colored death frog given the fact that hundreds of species of poison dart frogs evolved to use bright coloration in combination with poisonous skin would seem to indicate that it's a successful strategy and in one study scientists looking at color variations among poison dart frogs found that birds were more likely to attack blue frogs.
Poison Dart Frog Facts For Kids
How can any animal learn to avoid it one possibility is that every frog has a different level of poison juvenile frogs for example have had less time to accumulate poison and may not kill the predator and instead give them a highly unpleasant experience additionally a predator does not need to ingest the Frog to be harmed by its toxins a predator with a wet nose who bumps the Frog while sniffing it will likely have a bad time but perhaps not die these situations could allow the Predator to learn from past experience that bright frog is Bad Frog and Beyond this for some predators avoiding brightly colored animals.

we humans can't absorb the poison that we eat and use it as a weapon but there is something else that we can absorb and that is knowledge by understanding the genetic underpinnings of the poison dart Frog's resistance to poison we one day might be able to learn how to be resistant to certain poisons ourselves by understanding the evolution of poison dart frogs.