Tiny pumpkin toadlets have glowing bony plates on their backs

Researchers suggest the structures may help the deaf frogs communicate

FUNKY FROGS  Pumpkin toadlets, native to southeastern Brazil, are the first known frogs to have bony plates that glow through their skin when illuminated with ultraviolet light.      

S. Goutte, Carlos Jared

When a group of biologists realized that pumpkin toadlets had no middle ear bone, the team was stumped.