Kristina Cohen, Marc Seid, and Prof. Karen Warkentin, recently published a paper in Journal of Experimental Biology reporting their findings on how red-eyed treefrog embryos escape from danger. Seid, a professor at University of Scranton who did his PhD in insect neurobiology at BU with Prof. James Traniello, collaborated with the Warkentin Lab at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. The team used a variety of approaches, including high-speed videography, manipulation of embryos in the process of hatching, and electron microscopy to uncover the mechanism by which these embryos hatch in seconds when attacked by snakes and wasps. Images from the high-speed video were featured on the journal cover, and the article was highlighted in Inside JEB. The paper has received extensive media coverage, including in National Geographic’s Phenomena, Science Magazine, Live Science, The Verge, and The New York Times. Boston University also shared a video of the research on their Facebook page which has been viewed over 2 million times!
Cohen, K.L., M.A. Seid & K.M. Warkentin. 2016. How embryos escape from danger: the mechanism of rapid, plastic hatching in red-eyed treefrogs. Journal of Experimental Biology. 219: 1875-1883. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.139519