The Beautiful Color of Poison Dart Frogs

Poison dart frogs belong to the Dendrobatidae family. These tiny two-inch-long frogs are some of the most beautifully colored habitats of rainforests. As a defensive mechanism, they use these bright colors, a tactic called aposematic coloration, to warn the potential predators and cover their skin with alkaloid toxins such as batrachotoxin, epibatidine, and histrionicotoxin. 

The golden poison frog has enough toxin to kill 10 men and Indigenous Emberá people of Colombia rub their blowgun darts on the frogs’ backs when hunting.

What functional groups can you find in batrachotoxin and histrionicotoxin?

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