Glass frogs
Don’t worry … you aren't having a flashback to high school biology class. These amphibians of the family Centrolenidae are called glass frogs because the abdominal skin of many species is highly transparent, and viewing them from underneath is like looking at an MRI.
Many of the frogs’ internal organs, such as the heart, liver and gastrointestinal tract, are on display. Found in the jungles of Central and South America, these animals are mostly arboreal, meaning they live primarily in trees.
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Comments
None of these are transparent. That is, allowing light to pads through freely. They are translucent - allowing light to pass through diffused.
Centrolenids are an amazing group of frogs. The family name actually means central eyes because unlike most frogs, their eyes distinctly point forward, which is a fairly easy characteristic to ID, as well as the transparent bellies.
This frog pictured actually is not a glass frog (looks like a Hylid to me, although it could also be a reed frog or a mantellid from Madagascar). A number of different species outside of Centrolenidae have transparent bellies, but it really is the.... More
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