Relict Leopard Frog Research Paper

The relict leopard frog is a species of frog that has been proposed to be on the endangered species list. The leopard frog’s scientific name is lithobates onca. It was originally a member of the genus Rana, but in 2008 it was removed and inserted into the Lithobates genus. This species is part of the Ranidae family. The typical frog is 4.48 centimeters in length. The top of the frog is usually a mixture of brown and grey with greenish brown spots on the front side of the body. The colors under the top layer of the frog are typically white or yellow. A light line runs from the mouth, underneath the eye, and to the back of the frog on the top of its body. The relict leopard frog inhabits springs, streams, and wetlands, which are all freshwater pools that have
Natural selection occurs when organisms in a population with beneficial traits have an advantage in a certain environment and eventually pass on this trait to their offspring. Eventually, the whole population receives this trait after a long process. Natural selection depends on variation within a population, which is caused by mutations that have occurred in the past. A hypothetical situation of how natural selection could result in the species surviving is if one or few of the frogs had a mutation that enabled them to change color according to what they were on top of whenever a predator swam by or a human tried to catch them. This would help these frogs with survival greatly, and when would begin passing this trait onto their offspring and their offspring passing it onto their offspring, natural selection would be the end result, and after a long period of time, the whole population would have this color-changing trait. This trait would significantly lower the death rate of the frogs, and the population would begin to thrive and more importantly