National University of Singapore biologist David Bickford, the lead researcher, said in a release that the frog, Barbourula kalimantanensis, has an "amazing ability to breathe entirely through its skin."
The frog receives all necessary oxygen through its skin, the researchers said. Among four-legged creatures, only amphibians are known to breathe without lungs — previously only in two families of salamanders and a species of caecillian, a limbless amphibian.
The researchers hypothesized that the frog may have evolved without lungs, or lost its lungs, in adaptation to the high-oxygen environment of its habitat and the species' preference to sink, rather than float, which would have been hindered by lungs full of oxygen.
Bickford explained that cold water can hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water, meaning that in a fast-flowing river, many molecules of oxygen come into contact with the frog's skin.
source: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/04/07/lungless-frog.html?ref=rss&loomia_si=t0:a3:g4:r5:c0
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