last updated: Monday 14 April 2008, 14:01pm

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Lungless frog discovered

Lungless Frog

A frog has been found in a remote part of Indonesia that has no lungs and breathes through its skin.

Scientists said the discovery could provide an insight into what drives evolution in certain species.

The aquatic Barbourula Kalimantanensis frog was found on an expedition to a remote part of Indonesia's Kalimantan province on Borneo island.

David Bickford, an evolutionary biologist at the National University of Singapore, said along with the lungless frog, his team found two new lizard species and four other species of frogs during their two-month trip.

Mr Bickford's Indonesian colleague, Djoko Iskandar, said he first came across the frog 30 years ago and has been searching for it ever since. Five earlier expeditions proved fruitless.

Mr Iskandar said there was no other such species in the world known to man. 'There's salamander but this is the first case in the world in the frogs,' he said.

'It is very interesting because the species is a primitive species but very highly adapted.'

Scientists surmised that the frog had evolved to adapt to its difficult surroundings, in which it has to navigate cold, rapidly moving streams that are rich in oxygen.

They said the frog's discovery adds urgency to the need to protect its river habitat, which in recent years has become polluted due to widespread illegal logging and gold mining.

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