hermaphrodite photos: "Hermaphrodite photos On this link you can find a lot of free every hour changing hermaprodite photos"

Hermaphrodite Frogs Caused By Popular Weed Killer?

Atrazine, a top selling weed killer in the United States and the world, has been found to dramatically affect the sexual development of male frogs, turning them into hermaphrodites—creatures with both male and female organs—at concentrations 30 times lower than those deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

"What struck us as unbelievable was that atrazine could cause such dramatic effects at such low levels," says Tyrone Hayes, an associate professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the frog study.

"If you take five grains of salt, divide this weight by five thousand, that is the amount of atrazine that causes these abnormalities," added Hayes.

The EPA has set the limit for atrazine contamination for drinking water at 3 parts per billion (ppb). Hayes' and his colleagues found that concentrations of 0.1 ppb caused abnormalities.

The scientists exposed tadpoles of the African clawed frog, a popular research organism, to atrazine at concentrations as low as 0.1 ppb. When the tadpoles reached adulthood, Hayes found that between 16 and 20 percent had abnormal reproductive systems.

"Some had three ovaries and three testes, some had ovaries on one side and testes on the other, one animal even had six testes," says Hayes. The male voice box also shrunk, resembling the female version. And, when males were exposed to levels as high as 25 ppb of atrazine, the frogs showed a ten-fold decrease in testosterone levels.

Based on work done in other laboratories, Hayes' team suspects that atrazine feminizes the frogs by increasing production of an enzyme called aromatase, which converts testosterone to estrogen.

These results are published in the April 16 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Midwest Frogs Show Abnormalities

Hayes' team has also discovered that leopard frogs, native to the United States, living near atrazine-contaminated ponds in the Midwest show the same abnormalities as the atrazine-exposed animals in his lab. But these results must be viewed with caution until they have been peer reviewed, says Hayes.

The effects of atrazine on frogs had been examined prior to Hayes' work, but similar abnormalities had not been reported. The reason, according to Hayes: "They were looking for the wrong things."

"Most people were looking for external deformities, mortality or cancer," says Hayes. But at all the doses tested—0.01 to 200 ppb—atrazine did not effect mortality, alter metamorphosis or produce obvious lesions. "Atrazine-induced abnormalities are subtler—it took a year of experimentation before even we noticed the consequences," says Hayes.

 

Hunter kills hermaphrodite deer with 7 legs, "crab pinchers"
Wisconsin resident Richard Lisko shot and killed was driving in his truck and hit and killed a deer which had seven "crab-like" appendages and both male and female sex organs.  hermaphrodite photos

"And by the way, I did eat it," Lisko said. "It was tasty."

Link to story with creepy photo. Here's another local news report. (Thanks, Brook, and Bill Leslie)

Reader comment: glamajamma says,

I am actually in Wisconsin and read about the 7-legged deer over lunch. I was very disappointed on the number of pictures on the subject, so I have been Googling like crazy for more pictures. This link is a more disturbing picture and the comments hints to the deer being a hermaphrodite. The following links may or not be deer deformities, they could just be good camera angles. Link 1, Link 2  hermaphrodite photos

(Ed. note: the news story appears to be real, but those linked-to photos may instead be relatives of the Long Horse.)

Daniel Rubenstein says,

Here are more pictures of the mutated deer.

We are calling her Se-venison.

This is from the Fon Du Lac Reporter.

Stephanie B. says,

Look at the linked-to photos closely. In all but the official photos from the news story, it is clear that there are two deer in the photograph. In the first photo of the snowy woods, there is another deer behind the "six-legged" deer. You can see its tummy. In the second photograph of the field, the second deer is standing parallel to the first and its head is concealed, giving it the appearance of being "long." In the third photograph, the extra legs which appear to be attached to the deer are actually those of a baby deer's. Look at the location they are in, and this becomes more plausible than extra legs growing in that spot. Do not believe everything you see.

hermaphrodite photos