Pollutants like estrogen can change the gender of a frog from male to female in its life time! This is revealed by an experiment on a rare species of tree frog from Sri Lankas Horton Plains National Park — Philautus Femoralis.
This picture of the frog that has changed its gender being exposed to estrogen-like pollutants was taken in June 2005. These pollutants are similar to those found in the environment, the new study says.
Co-author Cecilia Berg, a research in environmental toxicology said,
The results are quite alarming. We see these dramatic changes by exposing the frogs to a single substance. In nature there could be lots of other compounds acting together.
may shed light on an aspect that — up to one-third of frog species living across the world are threatened with extinction!
This suggesting by the study is set to appear in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in May.