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There are no pictures of the frogs in this article. For pictures (of thawed and frozen frogs) you can see: https://shakerlakes.org/frozen-frogs/
The wiki also mentions that urea is produced, in addition to glucose, and both act as cryoprotectants.
Curious to how long the frozen structure can "survive". I wonder if it's a good idea to freeze one such frog and thaw it centuries later (an amphibian time-traveler!)
- New study [2]: 7 months (with 100% survival rate)
So further study seems to be needed.
[1] https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/216/18/3461/1160...
[2] https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/217/12/2193/1211...
Not one photo of said frog. Look, new rule: you write an article about frogs, you include a photo.
Even if you had the biochemistry that was able to do this, how many cycles could a higher life form tolerate this, assuming it would even work? Complex life seems to sacrifice some resiliency, such as the ability to regrow limbs. Amphibians already seem to be particularly adept at regeneration.
Wood frogs only live 3-5 years, so they probably only go through a max of 5 of these cycles. I wonder how much cellular damage they accumulate during these cycles that they can tolerate due to short lifespans. They also have ~10,000x less neurons than a mammal. Even if you had the biochemistry that was able to do this, how many cycles could a higher life form tolerate this, assuming it would even work? Complex life s…
Not one photo of said frog. Look, new rule: you write an article about frogs, you include a photo.
cant even call that hibernation. There are other knock on advantages to bieng frozen solid, it would slow down and even kill a lot of infectious microbes.It may convey a certain life extension benifit. And threre is not much behavioral adaptation needed,frog gets chilly, snuggles under a leaf,freezes solid, gets defrosted 8 months later and wakes up hungry and horny, not bad.
> it would slow down and even kill a lot of infectious microbes I wouldn't count on it killing them. The cryoprotectants in the frog's body don't discriminate; they'll protect foreign bacteria just as well as the frog's cells.
