快猫短视频

A FROG鈥檚 leg in a Saxon swamp in Lincolnshire has revealed the existence of
another native species of frog, says a researcher from Coventry. Sadly the
discovery coincides with the extinction of the present-day population.

Biologists thought that Victorian collectors introduced the pool frog to
Britain. But Chris Gleed-Owen of Coventry University found the thigh bone of
Rana lessonae at Chopdike Grove, a Saxon settlement from 600 to 950
AD.

Gleed-Owen identified the bone鈥攁 right ilium鈥攆rom its distinctive
pattern of ridges. The last known British population of pool frogs is thought to
have perished in Norfolk in the last few years. Preservationists took a single
male into captivity five years ago in the hope that it would breed with Swedish
pool frogs, its closest genetic relative. However, the male died at the start of
this year without offspring.

If English Nature confirms that Gleed-Owen鈥檚 discovery is genuine, it will
introduce the Swedish variety instead.