Biological Miracles of Frozen Wood Frogs and Alligators

Brumation vs. hibernation

Alligators Stuck in Frozen Swamps Surviving The Winter

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-how-alligators-stuck-frozen-swamps-spending-winter-brumation-hibernation

Like snorkelers who picked a particularly bad time to take a dip, these alligators at Shallotte River Swamp Park in North Carolina are trapped in frozen waters – and in these hostile, icy conditions, an ancient survival mechanism is kicking in.

Ordinarily, these alligators would be spending their time sun-bathing or resting along the bottom of their swamp, but in a video captured by staff at the Swamp Park, we can see the animals adopting a very different pose on account of the punishing cold spell currently blasting the US.

What they're doing is called brumation, which is similar to hibernation, and involves the reptiles' metabolism slowing down dramatically and going into a lethargic state, in response to very cold temperatures.

Usually, these alligators would brumate at the bottom of their swamp, coming up at least once a day for air. These are not usual times, however.

In the aftermath of a bomb cyclone, it looks like the alligators are adopting a different survival strategy, positioning themselves – or at least their snouts – at the surface of their frozen swamp, giving them ready access to air while the bitter winter persists...

In Alaska, wood frogs freeze for seven months, thaw and hop away
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan-frozen-frogs-20140723-story.html

Biological Miracle
Biological Miracle - Gates Of The Arctic National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)
(videos in the above link.)

Freezing Solid

The most remarkable thing about wood frogs happens not in the summer when they transform from tadpoles to frogs, but in the winter when they hibernate.

...Most frogs survive northern winters by hibernating deep under water, in ponds, lakes and streams—they are cold and dormant but their body temperature never falls below freezing.

Wood frogs have a different strategy. They hibernate by nestling down into the leafy litter on the forest floor. The leaves, duff and overlying snow give some insulation from extreme cold, but the frogs are not protected from subfreezing temperatures as they would be if they chose the underwater strategy.

...For most other animals, survival depends on protecting themselves from any condition that could freeze their flesh. Why is freezing so dangerous? Several things can happen: If ice crystals form inside an animal they can puncture blood vessels. When blood freezes, there is no mechanism to deliver oxygen and nutrients to organs, so extreme metabolic damage occurs. And ice severely injures cells by drawing out water and causing dehydration, scrambling the interior structure of cells and fracturing the cell walls. The result is pervasive and deadly internal damage.

..Yet wood frogs have evolved?? ways to freeze solid for up to eight months each year. They’ve accomplished what would seem to be a biological miracle. How do they pull this off?

At the beginning of winter, ice quickly fills the wood frog’s abdominal cavity and encases the internal organs. Ice crystals form between layers of skin and muscle. The eyes turn white because the lens freezes.

At the same time, the wood frog’s liver produces large amounts of glucose that flushes into every cell in its body. This syrupy sugar solution prevents the cells from freezing and binds the water molecules inside the cells to prevent dehydration.

So on the one hand, the wood frog’s body allows ice to form around the outsides of cells and organs; and on the other hand, it prevents ice from forming inside the cells--thus avoiding the lethal damage suffered by most animals when they freeze.

What does a hibernating wood frog look like? There is no muscle movement. No heartbeat. No breathing. For the entire winter, the wood frog is like a lump of hard, frigid, icy stone carved in the shape of a frog. But it’s alive, in a state of suspended animation.

In spring, the wood frog thaws from the inside outward. First the heart starts beating. Then the brain activates. Finally, the legs move.

Nobody yet understands what starts the wood frog’s heart after being frozen and inert for the entire northern winter. Once the frog is fully thawed, it heads off through the woods to find a breeding pond or other suitable water.

The wood frog is completely undamaged by conditions that would be fatal to nearly all other animals...

Wood Frogs and Humans

Glucose in the wood frog's blood keeps it from freezing during the extreme arctic winter temperatures. This is the same as the blood sugar in all vertebrate animals, including humans.

Hibernating wood frogs can tolerate blood sugar levels 100 times higher than normal without the damage suffered by human diabetics when their blood sugar is only 2 to 10 times above normal. Understanding how frogs can do this might provide valuable knowledge to help in the management of high blood sugar in people with diabetes.

Also, the wood frog's ability to withstand freezing may help researchers discover how human organs used for transplants could be frozen and thawed without damage. This would increase the allowable time between removing an organ from a donor and implanting it within the recipient, which could make many more transplants possible.

Researchers are also interested in how the wood frog's body can stop blood circulation and start it again many months later without blood clots or other injuries. Understanding the mechanism which allows this could be valuable for treating people after their blood flow is temporarily halted by heart attack or stroke.

( my comment:) How those almost frozen solid dead wood frogs restart their engines ( hearts) and thaw themselves in the spring, is really amazing! Only their Creator God can pull out this biological trick, don't you think? Those of you who firmly believe in Evolution theory, could you tell me how those smart wood frogs have researched and developed with the best strategy to freeze themselves but maintaining high glucose level 100 times than normal to safeguard their blood not totally frozen? Think about it, before they could find this amazing solution and evolve, their species would have all perished as we all know any researches are very time consuming. Nevertheless, no matter how amazing these phenomena are, many just use a leap of faith and assume that the wood frogs "evolve" ( a magic word indeed). see also the link below.

• Atheism is a Leap of Faith! You Tube by Frank Turek. PhD

A toad easting up a bat, unusual photo captured.