Big deal. People have been doing that for... well... for at least a few months now!
Posted on 04/10/2008 9:03:59 AM PDT by neverdem
Just as frogs’ mating season arrives, a study by a Yale professor raises a troubling issue. How many frogs will be clear on their role in the annual springtime ritual?
Common frogs that make their homes in suburban areas are more likely than their rural counterparts to develop the reproductive abnormalities previously found in fish in the Potomac and Mississippi Rivers, according to the study by David Skelly, a professor of ecology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Dr. Skelly’s research found that 21 percent of male green frogs, Rana clamitans, taken from suburban Connecticut ponds are hermaphrodites, with immature eggs growing in their testes.
The study is the latest in a decade’s worth of research that has found intersex characteristics in water-dwelling species like sharp-tooth catfish in South Africa, small-mouth bass on the Potomac and shovelnose sturgeon in the Mississippi.
Previous studies, particularly those by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and in the West...
--snip--
The research was in part drawn up to identify endocrine disruptors, or compounds that can interfere with reproductive hormones.
It focused on specific chemicals, including atrazine, a herbicide used in agriculture and on suburban lawns and gardens, and chemicals used to give fragrance to soap and cosmetics.
--snip--
In an interview, Dr. Skelly said of the intersex phenomenon: “This is the first evidence that I think anyone has provided that agriculture is doing anything but pushing those rates higher. I wouldn’t say it’s definitive by any means, but it’s certainly not part of the choir.
“I wouldn’t want to go out and tell the world that converting landscapes to agriculture is going to prevent us from facing risks from agricultural contaminants. What we found in most of the agricultural ponds we sampled was no evidence of reproductive deformity.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping
Must be that dreaded Global Warming, or Cooling, or Moderating.... or something to do with oil or coal...
Conclusive and final proof of the gay agenda directive that ALL males are secretly hiding their true homo feelings.
Hermaphrodite Reporters Found at New York Times.
This will reappear as part of the alternative lifestyle agenda.
Big deal. People have been doing that for... well... for at least a few months now!
Soon to be premiering on The Jerry Springer Show.
The question of the reproductive health of intersex fish is one that Dr. Blazer said she returned to in a follow-up to her 2006 study.
“We know the intersex males produce sperm,” she said. “The question is whether the sperm is as good” as the sperm of normal males.
So far, she said, the sperm of the intersex males has shown some decrease in the ability for self-propulsion, but the males remain able to reproduce.
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Is this study being funded by Ford or NAMBLA?
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