hey isnt there like a frog that has fur and also claws and wakes up every evening and chooses violence
sort of, but not really!
the hairy frog (or “clawed frog”, “horror frog, or “wolverine frog” depending on who you ask) is so named because its external breathing filaments give it a hairy appearance, but they’re no more or less violent than any other average frog!
that said, they DO have a secret last-ditch defense that gives them their names- the hairy frog’s terminal finger bones are naturally claw-shaped and EXTREMELY sharp. and normally this doesn’t matter one bit, because those bones are busy with the business of being bones, stuck inside of the frog’s fingers and never seeing daylight.
UNLESS the hairy frog happens upon a sticky situation that they can’t frog themselves out of!
if the hairy frog gets grabbed by a predator and has no way to escape, as a last-ditch defense they can pop the ends of their sharpened finger bones out of their attachment points and use specialized muscles to force them through their finger pads, forming makeshift claws.
not MUCH of a claw, sure, but remember that these bones are INCREDIBLY SHARP, and if the frog’s desperate flailing manages to rake them across the eyeball of an attacking stoat, it can offer enough of a defense for the frog to escape.
once the frog is free of danger, those specialized muscles relax and the frog’s finger bones stop moonlighting as a defense mechanism and go back to their day job supporting the frog’s fingers! and hopefully the hairy frog will be able to hop off into a stream somewhere long enough for its poor little frog hands to heal up before something else grabs it again and restarts the process.
