erydumaenhir:

myfrogcroaked:

Weird but true! In 1935, pregnancy tests exposed frogs to human pee to determine whether a woman was pregnant. This frog trade may have driven the emergence of a global chytrid pandemic that is causing frogs to become extinct today. Today is April Fools Day, but this is real science!

Read more at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303357586_The_Emerging_Amphibian_Fungal_Disease_Chytridiomycosis_A_Key_Example_of_the_Global_Phenomenon_of_Wildlife_Emerging_Infectious_Diseases 

Source: @myfrogcroaked

also I think they used to inject pee into rabbits and then kill them to see if the pee affected their organs. 

Those are African clawed frogs. If you inject a female clawed frog with urine from a pregnant woman, it’ll lay eggs.

The reason they’re such a problem is because African clawed frogs are nearly immune to chytrid, so they can carry it and not be affected. After actual pregnancy tests were developed, all the labs dumped all their frogs, and those frogs (some of them infected with chytrid) got into rivers and spread the disease everywhere. 

(also escapes and contamination from the pet hobby, but especially the lab frog thing)