A team of researchers has recently discovered two venomous frogs that deliver potent toxins through bony spines on their heads. Findings of the discovery were reported by the team in the journal Current Biology.

Researchers from Butantan Institute who were associated with the find said the frog known as Corythomantis greeningi has venomous spikes on its head that deliver toxin to would-be predators.

Most of the amphibians, such as frogs, newts and salamanders, concentrate or secrete poisons in skin glands to ward off predators, they added.

Carlos Jared, of the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo, Brazil said she was collecting some specimens of the frog Corythomantis greeningi in the field when his hand was injured by a spine on the amphibian’s head. Jarde said an intense pain spread up his arm and the pain continued for nearly five hours.

Jared’s colleague Edmund Brodie Jr., of Utah State Univ, said during an interview that the spine on the amphibian’s head clued them that there was something different about this frog.

“Many frog species are poisonous, and repel predators if predator eats them, bites or chews them. The difference with venomous animal is they can use those skin toxins to inflict toxins onto another animal … without being chewed or eaten”, he said.

The team said they have called on for a reclassification of C. greeningi and Aparasphenodon brunoi, Brazilian hylid frogs, as venomous.

Brodie described C. greeningi as an amphibian that dwells in dry desert areas. The frog habitats crevices in the rocks, only exposing their heads, and usually when a person or a predator reaches to grab the frog, they grab the head and that’s where the spines are, he said.