http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/news/lib/374 The latest news from below the surface Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:30:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/news/lib/374#comment-866 MikeB Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:39:43 +0000 http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/news/?p=374#comment-866 The study by Ballengee and Sessions puts forward an interesting potential explanation for some types of frog deformities. Unfortunately, their research fails to live up to the media hype; it does not solve the mystery of deformed frogs. In the laboratory, they found that some dragonfly larvae will remove limbs of tadpoles. However, Ballengee and Sessions did not actually test the predictions of the dragonfly hypothesis with rigorous data from the field. For example, a clear prediction of their hypothesis is that as the frequency of dragonfly larvae in wetlands increases, the frequency of missing-limb deformities in those wetlands is also expected to increase. Ballengee and Sessions did not test this prediction. Testing such predictions is a fundamental component of science. Until there are well-designed studies that examine the relationship between dragonfly density and frogs with missing limbs in nature, the relative importance of the role of predation in amphibian deformities will remain unknown. The study by Ballengee and Sessions puts forward an interesting potential explanation for some types of frog deformities. Unfortunately, their research fails to live up to the media hype; it does not solve the mystery of deformed frogs. In the laboratory, they found that some dragonfly larvae will remove limbs of tadpoles. However, Ballengee and Sessions did not actually test the predictions of the dragonfly hypothesis with rigorous data from the field. For example, a clear prediction of their hypothesis is that as the frequency of dragonfly larvae in wetlands increases, the frequency of missing-limb deformities in those wetlands is also expected to increase. Ballengee and Sessions did not test this prediction. Testing such predictions is a fundamental component of science. Until there are well-designed studies that examine the relationship between dragonfly density and frogs with missing limbs in nature, the relative importance of the role of predation in amphibian deformities will remain unknown.

]]> http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/news/lib/374#comment-815 L. Hyak Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:15:45 +0000 http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/news/?p=374#comment-815 Great piece of research, you should send this to Strassel for his benfit. Great piece of research, you should send this to Strassel for his benfit.

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