Yup, she is a little twisted and only one cm long, but it wasn't diet or chemicals that led to Harlaquin (Harliquin?) having an odd form. As soon as she came out of the water I new something was off, but it wasn't untill I was moving her to another tank that I saw it. Half of her body had the common green livery froglett trait (about 75% of grey frogs have this bright green coloring after first leaving the water) and the rest lacked this trait. I kept checking and the color dividing line hasn't changed and looking closer I realised that one side was slightly larger then the other, this is what causes the slight twist in her (I assume female by body shape, but it could be anything, or all or none with this sort of mutation) body. Harli as I call her or Quin as my Mom prefers will be staying with me as her odd structure will give her a disadvantage in the wild. I do not yet know how long she will survive as a frog, but each day she seems to move a bit more so we have hope (she is very sluggish and rarely moves. As a tad she always tipped to one side and unless you poked her a few times you would think her dead). Anyhow, some one you probubly wonder what exactly a mossaic is and how it happens. Basically, while in an embrio stage one or more cells mutate giving the creature more then one kind of dna threwout the body. If it happens early enough you get an near 50-50 split of dna usually right down the middle, but you can also get swirles of sister cells if it occurs later. Many people will be more formiliar with plants that have swirles of colorless cells as ornimentals like iveys. Often these plants "revert" back to having only healthy green cells given enough time, but in an animal the mutation stays true threought the creatures entire life. It's actually fairly common to have un-noticed mossaic cells scatterd in animals from late development, but to have one like Harli, well, to be honest, I've never seen an animal with such an even dna split. Hopefully she will survive and do well with me at which point I will conferm her state with some DNA test and perhaps donate her to my schools genetic program for further study (as a live specimin of course, I would never let them hurt her).
I bet you want to see a photo right? Who wouldn't?! If you can't see it, try following the link (sorry about the angle, she wasn't in a good spot to get the full impact of the split, but you can still see it)
images on a webpage if they don't load here
The brown half staied tadpollish longer and was really freaky for the first few days out of the water, but she is starting to look a bit more normal now
The brown half staied tadpollish longer and was really freaky for the first few days out of the water, but she is starting to look a bit more normal now