There are some advantages to being small, but also drawbacks. The pumpkin toadlet is an organism that knows intimately the pros and cons associated with being small.
The adult animal is only about the same size as a skittle. The frog’s inner ears are so tiny that they don’t function fully at this scale. This means that the frog’s movements are haphazard and almost like it is drunk. Today, Katie Wu, Atlantic science writer, investigates: Is a frog still a frog if it can’t jump well?
Katie’s article in The Atlantic, “A Frog So Small It Could Not Frog” is available.
This video shows how poorly pumpkin toadlets fling themselves around at the Florida Museum.
