A new generation of drugs made from nature, from antibiotics to treatments for cancer, may be lost unless the world acts to stop biodiversity loss, according to a new book. These developments could come from chemicals made by frogs, bears and pine trees, but the authors of "Sustaining Life" warned that species loss from climate change and pollution would hit the future of medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.

discovery of a giant frog in Madagascar has challenged certain geological assumptions. The frog's (Beelzebufo ampigna) presence there lends credence to the contested theory that there was a land

In the scientific equivalent of the board game Clue, teams of biologists have been sifting spotty evidence and pointing to various culprits in the widespread vanishing of harlequin frogs.

A rare and threatened species of tiny frog has been found breeding in a New Zealand animal park, meaning its future may now be more secure, researchers said. The 13 finger nail-sized Maud Island froglets were discovered clinging to the backs of male frogs at the Karori wildlife sanctuary in Wellington, said researcher Kerri Lukis. The frogs are found only on two islands in New Zealand's South Island. "Maud Island frogs have never been found breeding' before, even on their home island.

London: Is frog the answer to diabetes? "Yes', if researchers are to be believed. A joint team of experts from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and United Arab Emirates University has discovered that a substance on the skin of South American "paradoxical frog' boosts the production of insulin

researchers in Italy have found hope in amphibians to treat hospital-acquired infections. A group of bacteria that cause the infections

A frog the size of a bowling ball, with heavy armour and teeth, lived among dinosaurs millions of years ago. It was intimidating enough for the scientists who unearthed its fossils, to name the beast Beelzebufo, or Devil Toad. But its size, 4.54 kilograms and 40.64 centimetres long, is not the only curiosity. Researchers discovered the creature's bones in Madagascar. Yet it seems to be a close relative of normal-sized frogs who today live half a world away in South America, challenging assumptions about ancient geography. The discovery, led by paleontologist David Krause at New York's Stony Brook University, was published on Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This frog, if it has the same habits as its living relatives in South America, was quite voracious,' Krause said. "It's even conceivable that it could have taken down some hatchling dinosaurs.' Krause began finding fragments of abnormally large frog bones in Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, in 1993. They dated back to the late Cretaceous period, roughly 70 million years ago, in an area where Krause also was finding dinosaur and crocodile fossils. But only recently did Krause's team assemble enough frog bones to piece together what the creature would have looked like, and weighed. The largest living frog, the Goliath frog of West Africa, can reach 3.18 kilograms. But Krause teamed with fossil frog experts from University College London to determine that Beelzebufo is not related to other African frogs.

Botany students might soon have a revealing amphibian in their labs. Masayuki Sumida, a professor at the Institute for Amphibian Biology at Japan's Hiroshima University, has bred a diaphanous frog.

there is little chance for a new bird or butterfly being discovered in the Western Ghats now, says a recent study. It has, however, not ruled out the discovery of frogs and grasses. First