Jennifer Ray’s Legal Blog

High rates of deformation among salamanders, frogs and other amphibians have been found recently. Possible causes include inbreeding, parasites or pollution that permeates the animals’ skin. The mysterious deformations have included five-legged salamanders, frogs with extra limbs and other amphibians born so messed up that they can’t survive to reproduce. In at least some cases, frog deformities are related to increasing numbers of infections caused by tiny parasites.  Now, a study of tiger salamanders concludes inbreeding is not the cause in their case, further pointing to human activity as the culprit in amphibian deformities across the board. Researchers have examined adult and juvenile salamanders and found they had deformities, mainly consisting of missing, extra or dwarfed fingers and toes. High rates of amphibian deformation concern scientists because the plight of amphibians is thought to suggest something about the overall health of the environment.  That is scary stuff!