越长越小的青蛙

The Pseudis Paradoxa is the Benjamin Button equivalent of the amphibian world. The paradoxical creature starts off as a 25-cm-long tadpole and shrinks as it grows. ending up as a small tropical frog, about a quarter of its original size.

奇异多指节蛙是和《返老还童》里的Benjamin Button类似的两栖类动物，它是一种反常的生物。当它还是蝌蚪的时候身子长度差不多有25厘米，但是等它成年后变为青蛙后却只有蝌蚪状态的四分之一长。

When biologists discovered the paradoxical frog in the South American wild,they were understandably confused. At first, they thought the adult frogs were actually the babies, which later grew into giant tadpoles, exactly the opposite of how every other frog species in the world develops. They later figured out that the 11-inch tadpoles were indeed the juveniles, but still couldn’t explain the bizarre phenomenon.

当生物学家第一次在南美洲野外发现这种青蛙时，他们也和一般人一样感到非常困惑。起初他们怀疑其实成年青蛙才是它们的婴幼儿时期，而蝌蚪是它们的成年状态，也就是和普通青蛙完全相反的进化过程。但后来他们发现，25厘米长的蝌蚪的确是它们的未成年状态，只是仍然还无法解释为什么会出现这样奇怪的现象。

Luckily for Pseudis Paradoxa females, they don’t give live birth. Instead, the lay normal size eggs which later hatch into tadpoles that grow continuously for four months. As they morph into froglets, the giant babies lose their tales, which make up most of their overgrown bodies. Adult paradoxical frogs measure around 2.5 inches, pretty standard for tropical frogs.

雌性奇异多指节蛙很幸运地不需要把活生生的生命产下来，它们只需要把正常大小的卵子下到水里，卵子受精后化成蝌蚪，再连续在水里游四个月。在这之后，巨大的蝌蚪的尾巴会消失，而尾巴是它们身体长度的主要组成部分，成年奇异多指节蟾大概长2.5英寸(6.35厘米)，这个长度是热带青蛙的标准长度。

The green frog with dark green stripes is a species of hylid frog from South America. It inhabits ponds, lakes and lagoons from northern Argentina through the Pantanal, Amazon, and the Guianas, to Venezuela and Trinidad.

奇异多指节蛙身上有深绿色条纹，是来自南美洲的一种青蛙，栖息于阿根廷北部、潘塔纳尔湿地、亚马逊河域、圭亚那、委内瑞拉和特立尼达的池塘、湖泊及咸水湖。

Pseudis Paradoxa feed on larvae, small insects, and tiny invertebrates. As nocturnal creatures, they spend most of their lives in water. Their croaks supposedly sound like pigs’ oinks, adding to their paradoxical nature.

它们的食物有小虫、幼鱼和极小的无脊椎动物。作为夜间活动的生物，它们大部分时间都待在水里。叫声听起来很像猪叫，又成为它们“奇异”的一点。