Evolution: Lungless life

All hail the first lungless frog: Barbourula kalimantanensis of Borneo, a small, flat creature that lives in fast-flowing streams. Djoko Iskandar at the Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia first described the frog 30 years ago. Now he, David Bickford of the National University of Singapore and Anggraini Barlian, also at the Bandung Institute, have determined by dissection that it is entirely without lungs. Instead, it breathes through its skin.

Lunglessness among the four-limbed vertebrates is rare; only two families of salamander and one species of caecilian — a limbless amphibian — are known to have evolved this trait. Unfortunately, the frog is endangered by habitat loss and gold mining, which warms, pollutes and muddies its formerly cool and clear home streams.

Curr. Biol. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.03.010 (2008)