During my PhD I was looking into the behavioural and evolutionary ecology of reproduction in the European common frog (Rana temporaria). I bridged different disciplines of ecology; i.e. movement ecology during spring migration, behavioral ecology during the reproductive phase testing for mate choice and evolutionary ecology by investigating effects of sexual selection and mate choice on offsprings development. PDF1 , PDF2, PDF3, PDF4, PDF5 

It's thought that around 500 million frogs are eaten each year worldwide, which can have a big impact on ecosystems. Frogs are an important food source for many birds and mammals, and they also consume a lot of other animals. This means they play a big part in controlling harmful insects in agriculture or even pathogens. There have been lots of reports of frog farms, especially in Asia, but it seems unlikely that these can meet the global demand for frog legs. To find out where and how the frogs grew up, we looked at the makeup of the stable isotopes of nitrogen, carbon and oxygen in the muscles and bones of the frog's legs. Some isotopes, which are heavier, build up through the food chain. For instance, the more carnivorous the diet, the higher the nitrogen content in the tissue. Using the isotope composition, we were able to determine that the frogs' legs were only partially farmed. Roughly half of the animals were taken from the wild. PDF

A Herpetological Approach to the Magico-Medical Use of Frogs and Frog-Amulets in Mesopotamia

The frogs living in the rivers and marshes of Mesopotamia were a common part of the local wildlife between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. People used figurative amulets and parts of the animal to heal, and frogs were used as a substitute animal. In a variety of early societies, frogs were seen as symbols of fertility, rebirth, healing and transformation because they change a lot and can live in water and on land. We looked into the info collected by A. Bácskay about frogs and toads being used as medicine and found four species of frogs that could have been used as medicine and as substitutes for animals in Mesopotamian marshlands. We've also included figurative frog amulets from Mesopotamia, going back to the 3rd to 1st millennium BCE, with info on what they're made of and where they were found. This gives us a pretty comprehensive overview of how frogs were seen in Mesopotamia, in terms of magic and religion. PDF