9 frogs and their amazing superpowers

You probably shouldn't be a fan of frogs and frogs, but we have to recognize that these amphibians really do have some extraordinary abilities not found anywhere else in nature. So much so that many of the superpowers you'll see below are contributing to the advancement of medicine in the most unexpected ways. Check out:

9 - Megamorphine

Before hunting, Peru's Matsés Indians use the secretions of the waxed leaf frog ( Phyllomedusa sauvagii ) to feel “like gods.” This small sticky amphibian produces a substance that is 40 times more potent than morphine.

But aside from producing the potentiated effect of morphine, the substance has none of the unpleasant side effects such as suppressed breathing or addiction. Researchers are trying to turn this secretion into a safe drug that can revolutionize medicine.

8 - Super Bladder

In 2010, Australian researchers realized that radio trackers that were inserted into frogs were being pushed out of their bodies in some way. After extensive testing, they found that the frog bladder encloses any foreign object in the body and pushes it out with the urine.

To confirm these bizarre results, the researchers implanted small spherical granules into the body cavities of five green Australian frogs ( Litoria caerulea ) and five cane toads ( Rhinella marina ).

In all five of the cane toads, the granules reached the bladders, and all Australian frogs expelled the small objects within 19 days on average. The researchers concluded that a tissue grew from the bladder and surrounded the granules in just two days.

"We were really surprised to see that the tissue was growing around the implanted granules after just two days, which was even before the surgical scars were completely closed, " said researcher Christopher Tracy, a physiological ecologist at Charles Darwin University in Australia., to Live Science.

7 - Language with super strength

The horned toad of South America (genus Ceratophrys ) is also known as the Pac-Man frog due to its huge mouth and its voracious appetite. They eat anything including insects, rodents, snakes, other frogs, lizards and even small birds.

With its tongue, the horned frog grabs its prey and sweeps it to its mouth to devour it. This is a pretty impressive feat when you consider the size of the creatures this amphibian swallows.

Thinking about this ability, some researchers were curious to know how strong their language was and did some tests. The results showed that their tentacle tongue can generate forces of 1.4 times its own body weight. It's like pulling a 180-pound cow into your mouth. A particularly large toad could pull up to three times its own weight with its tongue.

6 - Disaster Prediction

Some animals can feel the subtlest signs that an earthquake is about to happen, noticing hours earlier. But frogs can do this even more efficiently. Amphibians may feel that an earthquake is coming five days before it actually happens.

This information was proven most strongly when some researchers in Italy were studying a frog population during their mating season in 2009. At one point during the tests, all frogs fled and simply disappeared from the breeding colony where they were. .

The weather was good and nothing visibly disturbed the animals. They fled for no apparent reason. However, a few days later, a strong earthquake hit the region. No one knows exactly how the frogs realized what was about to happen, but NASA had a theory.

Before an earthquake reaches pressure below the earth's surface, it creates chemical changes that release positively charged ions. These can cause headaches and nausea in animals and humans. They can also react with water creating hydrogen peroxide. It is possible that the frogs felt the chemical changes in the water, which caused the massive escape from the study site.

5 - Superglue

The Santa Cruz frog ( Notaden bennettii ) from Australia produces the strongest non-toxic glue in the world. These animals live underground for nine months of the year. As they live in a desert, they only surface when it rains. It is also when the insects come out to attack.

With this sticky substance secreted over the frog's skin, insects can't bite it without sticking to it. Later the frog sheds its skin and eats all the insects that got stuck in its old carcass. This quick drying glue can be the answer to a lot of problems for surgeons.

By removing this mucus from frogs, knee surgery (for example) can become much faster and easier. Most glues cannot be used on our body because they are full of toxic substances, and all non-toxic medical glues are very weak. But it has been found that Santa Cruz frog secretions are non-toxic and extremely strong. It also dries very quickly, in about 30 seconds, outdoors or underwater.

4 - Healing Substances

The skin of some frogs and frogs is covered with miraculous antibacterial substances that can cure anything, apparently. The red-eyed Australian frog ( Litoria chloris ) produces peptides that are capable of creating holes in the HIV virus, causing its destruction.

It can literally eliminate HIV from an infected cell. California's yellow-legged frog ( Rana boylii ) is being evaluated for its potential in the fight against MRSA, the superbug that continues to terrorize some hospitals.

In addition, researchers are also testing the back mucus of wax monkey frogs to fight cancer. This animal produces a special substance that inhibits the growth of blood vessels. Cancer tumors need new blood vessels to continue to grow, and this substance can help deprive them of this action by preventing them from growing out of control.

3 - Very sharp hearing

Odorrana tormota frogs have such sharp hearing that they are able to tune their ears to specific frequencies as we tune to a radio station. It is the only animal on the planet we know that can do this.

Most of us just hear a variety of sounds. This amphibian can choose which part of the frequency he wants to hear. And they are some of the very few animals that can communicate by ultrasound, which cut the noise of waterfalls and noisy rapids where they live nearby.

2 - Natural repellent

Mosquitoes can kill more people from diseases transmitted each year than any other animal on earth. Each year, 725, 000 people die from diseases transmitted by these insects.

No animal is safe from its bite except the frogs. All because they secrete repellents that make them practically immune to mosquitoes, which is great for amphibians, as they share many of the moist marshy environments that mosquitoes love.

Researchers are already testing a few different frog repellant formulas to see which one works best. So far, frog juice is not as effective as the chemical repellents we use, but it is natural and better for the environment. The problem is that the substance is a bit stinky, so it will need more research to make it usable by humans.

1 - Killer Mustache

The Emei frog ( Leptobrachium boringii ) has a “mustache” full of thorns that grow during the mating season and are made up of keratin. During this time, your arms also increase, making them stronger.

With all this, frogs use these weapons to fight, sending their competitors away to get the female and mate in peace. When the female lays her eggs, the male stays to watch them.

And if one male throws out another and eggs are already in the nest, he will take care of them the same way, even though it makes no evolutionary sense to take care of a rival's bacuris, especially the one you ended up beating hours before.