WEIRDEST OF THE WEIRD: DIANE'S BARE-HEARTED GLASS FROG

Hello everyone! So I decided to start a series on weird animals where I write articles on... well, weird animals. We’ve all seen varieties of animals, had some as pets, and we are accustomed to how most look. But there are so many animals out there that look like nothing you've ever come across.

I am going to be bringing to you the really weird and strange ones in my series. Sit back and enjoy! (You still have to read the article though, this isn’t a movie).

Most animals especially the mammals and reptiles are made of a skeletal system covered with skin tissue. The skin is usually opaque, and cannot be seen through...Usually.

Apparently, there are some animals with transparent skins, transparent enough for one to actually see through. When I read that the first time, I found it really creepy….. and weird. I present to you an example of such animal. It is an amphibian, a species of frog called Diane’s Bare-hearted Glass frog. Strange name.

_{This is a type Glass frog but not the one I'm writing on. You can check out pictures of those here - Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic}

WEIRD-O-GRAPHY(BIOGRAPHY?)

WEIRD-SCRIPTION - OK, so this is the part where I write about its weirdness. As the name implies, the Diane’s Bare-hearted Glass frog (that’s a mouthful) has a skin that’s transparent. Actually, not all parts of the frog are transparent. Only the belly is. And it is more translucent than transparent.

The back side has a green color that makes it easy to hide from predators by camouflaging among the leaves. The Diane’s Glass frog(I had to shorten it OK?) is also quite small being just about 2.5 centimeters long, about an inch long. That’s not even as long as a matchbox!

You probably read the bare-hearted part of the name. That’s not an exaggeration as you can actually see the frog’s organs beneath the skin, including - of course - the heart. Yeah, creepy.

_{The belly of a Glass frog. You can see some of its innards. - Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic}

FAMILY - The frog was discovered and classified by a team of scientists led by Dr. Brian Kubicki of the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center. It was classified under the Hyalinobatrachium genus in the Centrolenidae family of frogs. That’s the genus of glass frogs(you didn’t think that was the only glass frog did you?). The frog was named after the lead scientist’s mother Janet Diane Kubicki who always

"...encouraged Brian’s life-long interest with natural history and especially fishes and amphibians.”_Sci-news.com

The Diane’s Bare-hearted Glass frog has about 60 cousins all in the Hyalinobatrachium species. Some of its cousins are the Cricket Glass frog, the Fleischmann’s Glass frog, the Reticulated Glass frog and so many others(about 60 remember?). One of the Hyalinobatrachium genus - the Reticulated Glass frog - is even smaller than the Diane’s Bare-hearted Glass frog. It’s 12mm!

Here's a full scientific classification of the frog:

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Amphibia
Order	Anura
Family	Centrolenidae
Genus	Hyalinobatrachium
Species	Hyalinobatrachium dianae

HABITAT - The Diane’s Glass frog-like other glass frogs are arboreal animals. They reside in treetops of rainforests they live in and rarely come down except during their breeding seasons where they move to nearby rivers and streams to mate.

LOCATION - The Diane’s Glass frogs live in rainforests. They can be found at elevations of 400 to 600 meters in the rainforest foliage of Costa Rica(in Central America). Other glass frogs can be found in different rainforests located in Central America and South America.

_{A Rainforest - Pixabay CC0 Creative Commons}

BREEDING - I mentioned that the Diane’s Glass frogs only come down from their treetops during the breeding season. During the breeding season, the female lays as much as 20 to 30 eggs at a time.

The eggs are usually placed on the underside of leaves overhanging a water body by the frogs. This is also done by other species of frogs when laying eggs.

But unlike the other frogs, the Diane's Glass frogs and other species of glass frog usually stay with the egg to protect them from insects and ward off other male frogs. They also ensure the eggs stay moist at all times.

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The Diane's Glass frog are nocturnal animals. They're most active at night and usually hunt for food at this time. During the day, they spend most of their time sleeping (such lucky fellas).

Here are some fun facts about the Diane's Glass frogs(most of the facts apply to other species of glass frogs):

• They have bones that are green and white in color.
• They have forward-facing eyes unlike other species of frogs with eyes at the sides of their head.
• Glass frogs sometimes eat their young ones(This struck me as odd. After being quite the model parent taking care of their eggs, they then eat them?!
• Who here noticed that it looks a lot like Kermit the frog?

I'm guessing you do not know who or what that is. The short explanation - he is a Muppet character. The long one, please check here(and make sure you return to my article).

_{Kermit the frog.Pxhere CC0 Public domain}

WEIRD-O-METER

So here is where we give the animal a weirdness rating after reviewing its key weird features.

#WEIRD1: See-through skin.
#WEIRD2: Eats its offspring sometimes.

So based on the above, I give it a 4/10 rating. It is weird, but there are weirder animals out there.

So that's it for this week, see you next time. Croak crooak! (goodbye in foriogese)

PS: The Diane's Bare-hearted Glass frog does not actually make croaking sounds like other frogs, they whistle.

REFERENCES

• Hyalinobatrachium dianae - Wikipedia
• Meet the see-thru frog! New species of amphibian has transparent skin to reveal its organs - and Kermit's eyes
• Hyalinobatrachium - Amphibiaweb
• Hyalinobatrachium dianae: New Species of Glassfrog Discovered in Costa Rica
• New Species of See-Through Frog Found, Looks Like Kermit

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