The Clumsy Physics of the Pumpkin Toadlet

Being small has its advantages ... and some limitations. One organism that intimately knows the pros and cons of being mini is the pumpkin toadlet.

As an adult, the animal reaches merely the size of the skittle. At that scale, the frog's inner ear is so small, it's not fully functional. That means when the frog moves, it's haphazard and seems kind of drunk. And so today, with the help of Atlantic science writer Katie Wu, we investigate: If a frog can't jump well, is it still a frog?

Read Katie's piece in The Atlantic, A Frog So Small, It Could Not Frog: https://bit.ly/3bydh1g

Watch pumpkin toadlets poorly fling themselves around in this video from the Florida Museum: https://bit.ly/3bFAXRv

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy