| In advance of its publication in Current Biology (apparently in volume 18), news of the paper announcing the lungless frog (the Bornean flat-headed frog, Barbourula kalimantanensis) by David Bickford and colleagues from Indonesia – Djoko Iskandar and Anggraini Barlian of Institut Teknologi Bandung, Java, Indonesia – has been released.
My eyes widened last month when I saw David editing a draft of this paper just before a staff meeting started – the title said it all. I figured it’d still be some months before I saw it in print though. |
 Djoko Iskandar and David Bickford dissecting a frog in the Raffles Museum last Oct. |
So I was pleasantly surprised this morning when Marcus Ng buzzed me with an instant message link early this morning.
Although the paper will be published in May 2008, this news had hit the wires some hours earlier. So it is all over the internet on news and blog sites already! Just google “lungless frog“.
Well, this paper will have an excellent reception committee when it comes out in May:
- “First lungless frog discovered in Borneo,” by Ed Yong. Not exactly rocket science, 07 Apr 2008.
- “First lungless frog found,” by John Roach. National Geographic News, 07 Apr 2008.
- “World’s only lungless frog leaves scientists gasping,” by Catherine Brahic. NewScientist.com News Service, 07 April 2008.
- “Bizarre frog has no lungs,” by Charles Q. Choi. LiveScience, 07 Apr 2008.
Update – here are some real sweet photos of the Bornean flat-headed frog, Barbourula kalimantanensis) courtesy of David Bickford from Aug 2007.
The Biodiversity Crew @ NUS 
I’m so looking forward to hear a lot more of detailed information about the frog. Amazing! 🙂
Dear Cianne,
it seems we’ll have to wait at least three weeks before the paper is out unfortunately, but will let you know is its any earlier.
That’s really icky cute! So it breathes through its skin only then? Awesome, congrats to Dave and everyone.
Congrats to Dr. Bickford and his team for this incredible discovery!
This is so rad! I cant wait to hear more about this frog!! Is it only in Thailand?
Why would a lungless frog have nostrils? Where do they lead to?
I really love this kind of weird discoveries, I’m really looking forward for the detailled article. Thanks for letting us know before its release !