My favourite fact about these little guys: In Latin, their scientific name (Pelodryas caerulea) translates to “Blue Frog”.
This is because when John White studied the species for his book A Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, his specimen in a jar was blue. Even crazier: There is a rare mutation in the frogs that leaves them to actually be blue! He doesn’t really know much about the frog:
“Blue Frog, speckled beneath with greyish; the feet divided into four toes; the hind-feet webbed. Size of the common frog.”
It is probable that the alcohol solution the frog was sent to Ireland in decayed the yellow pigment in the frog’s skin, leaving it blue. But there’s a non-zero percent chance he was sent an actual blue frog. We’ll never know.
I love little taxonomy facts like this! One of my favorites is that Carl Linnaeus (the father of modern taxonomy) occasionally named animals to take jabs at scientific rivals.
His main target was a critic named Johann Siegesbeck. To get back at him, Linnaeus named a notoriously weedy, small-flowered, unpleasant-smelling plant Siegesbeckia orientalis.
My favourite fact about these little guys: In Latin, their scientific name (Pelodryas caerulea) translates to “Blue Frog”.
This is because when John White studied the species for his book A Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, his specimen in a jar was blue. Even crazier: There is a rare mutation in the frogs that leaves them to actually be blue! He doesn’t really know much about the frog:
It is probable that the alcohol solution the frog was sent to Ireland in decayed the yellow pigment in the frog’s skin, leaving it blue. But there’s a non-zero percent chance he was sent an actual blue frog. We’ll never know.
I love little taxonomy facts like this! One of my favorites is that Carl Linnaeus (the father of modern taxonomy) occasionally named animals to take jabs at scientific rivals.
His main target was a critic named Johann Siegesbeck. To get back at him, Linnaeus named a notoriously weedy, small-flowered, unpleasant-smelling plant Siegesbeckia orientalis.