Scientists in South America have been able to discover that the larvae of the Argentine horned frog, a genus noteworthy to be mentioned for its inclination to try eating everything that goes by, produce a concise, clear and very audible metallic-like sound when they sense threatened.

Horned frog tadpoles are genetically violent and carnivorous. They usually try to eat the tadpoles of other frogs and possibly that scream is mainly produced when some other horned tadpole makes a move in order to attack it. It is used as a strategy to avoid cannibalism.

This discovery has been printed in the Swedish Periodical Acta Zoological, which is the first proof for the production of sound by the larvae of frogs.

This discovery had been made by Dr. Guillermo Natale of the National University of La Plata in Buenos Aires, and his contemporaries, when they were studying the mating calls and croaking sounds of mature frogs.

A lot of adult amphibians use loud and noisy echoes such as croaks to announce their presence in the place, and over and over again to draw attention of sexual partners, but so far researchers had not realized that amphibian larvae may as well make sounds below the surface of water.