Museum of Science, Boston

Temporary Exhibit [Return to listing page]

Opens Friday, February 13, 2009

Although frogs are much-maligned, they can also be fascinating, adaptable, and often beautiful creatures. With more than 5,000 species spread across six continents, frogs are remarkably diverse and the most abundant amphibians on Earth. Frogs: A Chorus of Colors displays both this beauty and diversity.

From the one-inch long golden mantella frog, which chirps to attract mates and wrestles its competitors, to the African bullfrog, a giant that eats almost anything and can live up to 40 years, each frog or toad has its own unique environment to explore and story to tell.

Frogs: A Chorus of Colors also demonstrates how frogs help our environment and agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. Frogs display mutations or population declines in response to ecosystem changes before many other species, making them early indicators of environmental damage. They also eat insects, protecting crops, and serve as a food source for other wildlife. Scientists even use the protective toxins that coat the skin of many frog species to create new treatments for infection, pain, heart disease, and stroke.

Walking through Frogs, visitors can hear the fluctuating rhythms and pleasing harmonies of live frog calls, listen to recorded calls, watch videos of frogs swimming, climbing, and gliding, and even perform a virtual frog dissection.

Frogs: A Chorus of Colors was created by Peeling Productions at Clyde Peeling's REPTILAND.