Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was walking the Ohio Erie Canal towpath yesterday evening near my home, when I spotted this young American Bullfrog at the edge of the path. Since there were a number of cyclists out, I decided to move the frog across the path, so it wouldn't get hit. When I picked up the little amphibian, I noticed that it held out its front leg in an awkward way. I thought maybe it had been injured. But then I noticed that it had extra legs.

What did it taste like?

Six legged frogs have been around a long time. I think I still have an article from 1971 with a picture of a six legged frog found in Michigan. It is generally contributed to pollution or environmental problems. The BBC recently had a picture of a six legged frog that had three heads (True-check it out on Google).

>>...I think I still have an article from 1971 with a picture of a six legged frog found in Michigan...

Wow, Tim, that's quite a find you made. Not only is it 40 years old, but it made it from Michigan to Ohio. Maybe the extra legs made it move faster...

(don't you wish SOMEBODY would post a serious response here? I'll give it a try. It IS interesting, actually, to me at least, because the two extra legs are both on the same side. The fact that you didn't notice it at first reminds me of times when I've seen hatchlings with either a fault or an interesting pattern aberrancy and didn't notice it at first. I was with a fella at a herp show once who bought a hatchling snake and only later noticed it didn't have eyes. Funny how your attention can get focused elsewhere, or we simply see what we expect to see.)

td

Serious response? Here? Oh, maybe you set your expectations too high, Terry.

The extra-leg thing is caused by a parasite called a trematode, so it's been going on for a long time. There is a theory that agricultural runoff causes an increase in trematodes. Therefore, frogs with malformations are now more commonplace.

The trematode (or fluke) has a comlex life cycle, first inhabiting a snail, then a tadpole and then a bird. The extra legs are a feature to make the frog easier to catch so the fluke can be transported into its final host - a amphibian-eating bird.

There is some additional information on this in the link below.

P.S.: Time Lord - it tasted like frog legs with a couple "bonus" legs.
Trematode Life Cycle