Merci Jean-Pierre, j´espere que tu vas bien !

Merci Fred ;)

Merci Benoit ;)

The noise is so deafening you need earplugs, and the frogs are so frenzied that they completely ignore your presence, leaping in every direction! It was truly one of the most extraordinary naturalist events I have ever had the chance to witness.

The hypothesized evolutionary strategy behind this behavior is to overwhelm predators through sheer numbers. This photo shows only a small fraction of the actual scene—but imagine thousands of frogs all around you, covering the ground, the trees, and the pond.

Amid this chaotic night, many frogs mate with the wrong species, some even eat other frogs, and numerous predators arrive to take advantage of the abundance of prey.

This event usually lasts only a single night, during which some rare species join the frenzy—species that are often seen only on that occasion.

Explosive breeding is the name of a rare phenomenon in which frogs aggregate to reproduce in the same place at the same time. Once a year, in certain ponds, tens of thousands of frogs gather to reproduce in a spectacular concert.

You can find the accompanying models on MorphoMuseuM here: morphomuseum.com/articles/vie...

This study is the result of Elena Berger’s Bachelor’s thesis, conducted in collaboration with @eliamson.bsky.social @hesham-sallam.bsky.social @gohar.bsky.social @gsferreira.bsky.social and many other co-authors. Thanks to Tyler Stone @tylerstoneart.bsky.social for the nice reconstruction!

Regarding the sense of smell, we basically found that no part of the olfactory apparatus was significantly reduced, indicating that these amphibious cetaceans most likely had a good nose, and that the reduction of this sense most likely came later in their evolution.

Comparing the relative volume of the brain endocast, we found that this early whale was quite brainy, which is a surprise, as the first cetaceans with big brains were so far understood to be the fully aquatic basilosaurids.

We addressed two aspects of cetacean evolution: their acquisition of a relatively big brain and the evolution of their sense of smell. As other mammals secondarily adapted to the aquatic environment, cetaceans have been assumed to reduce their sense of smell.

We ct-scanned the skull of Protocetus atavus, an amphibious cetacean coming from the Mokattam Formation in Egypt. The inner anatomy of the skull was reconstructed, and we were able to reconstruct the brain imprint (endocast) as well as the different components of the nasal cavity