23-Apr-2020 Theme: 'Frogs'

(1) What recently extinct Queensland frog species has been the subject of a much-publicised ‘Lazarus project’ aimed at resurrecting the species?

Answer: The gastric brooding frog (Rheobatrachus vitellinus / Rheobatrachus silus).

(2) What is the name of the mythological frog who in a popular Aboriginal legend swallowed all the fresh water in the world? (bonus point: what animal succeeded in making him release the water again?)

Answer: Tiddalik (aka Molok). Bonus: Nabunum the eel.

(3) Which famous Australian herpetologist, known as ‘The Frog Man’, died in Adelaide on 26 March this year?

Answer: Professor Mike Tyler.

(4) What disease, discovered by Australian researcher Lee Berger in 1998, has caused the decline and extinction of numerous frog species in Australia and throughout the world?

Answer: Amphibian chytrid fungus (Chytridiomycosis).

(5) Why until the 1960s did medical laboratories keep large breeding populations of exotic African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis)?

Answer: To use as human pregnancy tests (urine injected from a pregnant woman triggered egg-laying in the frogs).

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