other hylids have huge testes, which apparently producevastquantities of sperm, helping to ensure fertilization. Males of the North Americantailed frog,Ascaphus truei, have an extension of the cloaca that functions as a copulatory organ (the “tail”) to introduce sperm into the female’s ...
Muscles for bodily functions When it comes to such things as digestion, elimination, and other subconscious body functions of a frog, the tasks are performed by smooth muscle. These muscles don't have striations, and they operate automatically. Smooth muscle is found in the digestive tract, bloo...
It has been hypothesized that genes with fewer and more specific functions would be more likely to respond to selection than genes with multiple functions. In the latter case, the response to selection that enhances one role of a multifunctional gene would be counteracted by the deterioration of...