Topic: Freeze me next!

[Pugnate]

linky

Frozen frog comes back to life

A tree frog has miraculously come back to life after being accidentally frozen solid in a freezer in Australia.

The tiny frog was found covered in a layer of ice in a walk-in freezer - at -18C - at a Darwin cafeteria.

But - after defrosting - it fully recovered and started breathing again, reports the Australian Daily Telegraph.

Sue Hoddinott, 47, who found the frog, said: "I couldn't believe it. He was completely frozen rock solid. When I found him I thought 'Poor little thing', and I went to put it in the bin.

"But a friend said not to, as she had seen on TV that they can come back to life when defrosted. I told her she had been watching too many movies, but I did it anyway.

"She ran her finger over his back to wipe the ice off and he started breathing again - it was amazing."

FrogWatch NT co-ordinator Graeme Sawyer said it was an unusual story.

But he did not rule out the possibility of a frog being revived after it was frozen.

"I've never heard of it happening with Australian species but there are American frogs that can be defrosted and come back to life," he said.

[WindAndConfusion]

PBS video about frozen frogs.

[Quemaqua]

Frogs do a lot of crazy stuff, really.  Hadn't heard of this but it doesn't entirely surprise me.

[Xessive]

I think it was kind of ironic that it survived, and that it was in a city called "Darwin" Ooooh!

[WindAndConfusion]

1) Evolution only applies if the frog goes on to successfully reproduce.
2) I think natural selection would favor frogs who are smart enough not to get trapped in a walk-in freezer.
3) There is a protist called mixotricha paradoxa that is found only in the digestive system of a species of termites in Darwin, Australia (mastotermes darwiniensis), that is a far cooler example of evolution (and specifically endosymbiosis, the process by means of which mitochondria and cellular nuclei are believed to have evolved). On the cell membrane of this protist, you can find three types of single-celled organisms that are only known to occur on the cell membranes of this protist. Altogether, M. paradoxa incorporates four distinct species of bacteria into its physiology. Unlike animals (who have a measly two genomes) and plants (who have only three), M. paradoxa has five genomes.

[Xessive]

Well, in terms of survival and coexistence the symbiotic relationships make the most sense