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Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

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Re: Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

#21

Post by furyofantares »

soco wrote: post #12

I really expected a wood(en) frog here, qualifying truly as a biological miracle. But the wood frogs are cool as well.

Oh god. This made me wonder, what is wood, anyway? And I've just come away much more confused.

Bamboo is a grass and doesn't come from a tree. Palm wood comes from palm trees, except palm tree trunks are apparently a totally different type of structure than other tree trunks, sounds closer to Papyrus. No growth rings, a fiber type structure. Is Papyrus wood?

Any plant matter above a certain density? I don't think that's it. Corn stalks aren't wood.

Man, I don't know. I am certain that it must be plant matter though, so yes, a wooden frog would be a biological miracle.

Re: Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

#22

Post by monkeycantype »

killjoywashere wrote: post #6

Evolutionarily, amphibians are somewhat simpler than mammals, they're smaller than a lot of mammals and they don't live as long, so I suspect some of this is simply that "things that aren't there". They wouldn't have as many problems with advanced glycation end products because the temperature is so low. There's at least one other ice survival strategy: antifreeze proteins. The fir tree and a variety of arctic fish h…

Perhaps because ice forms outside cells, freezing ions in place. Even if there was a very small area around ion channels that was liquid that equalized all ion concentrations with the cell, when the extra cellular fluid thaws the original concentrations would be pretty much restored

Re: Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

#24

Post by redundantly »

> ...the wood frog’s liver produces large amounts of glucose that flushes into every cell in its body. This syrupy sugar solution prevents the cells from freezing...

All natural, no preservatives added, sweetened frog popsicles! Yummy!

Re: Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

#25

Post by MPSimmons »

e44858 wrote: post #18
dexwiz wrote: post #17

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…

"frogs don’t freeze once and stay frozen. Instead, they spend a week or two freezing at night and thawing during the day until the temperatures drop permanently below freezing" https://shakerlakes.org/frozen-frogs/

like maple syrup...

Re: Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

#26

Post by yial »

furyofantares wrote: post #21
soco wrote: post #12

I really expected a wood(en) frog here, qualifying truly as a biological miracle. But the wood frogs are cool as well.

Oh god. This made me wonder, what is wood, anyway? And I've just come away much more confused. Bamboo is a grass and doesn't come from a tree. Palm wood comes from palm trees, except palm tree trunks are apparently a totally different type of structure than other tree trunks, sounds closer to Papyrus. No growth rings, a fiber type structure. Is Papyrus wood? Any plant matter above a certain density? I don't think tha…

Wood is secondary xylem produced by growth from the vascular Cambium. (Sometimes? I think the issue is that there’s more than one definition of wood depending on context …?). Growth rings?

But palm trees aren’t truly trees, right ? Just called trees…. They’re more of a tree like shrub? I think.

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