But forget about the faces.

Look at their leaps.

They are spectacular jumpers.

They leap up and across.

They can even jump in tandem.

So what's their secret?

Well, let's look at a jump and see the component parts.

The legs, see them pushing off?

That's where the power comes from.

And the spine?

It's rigid, straight, so the frog

doesn't uncurl as it jumps.

It unfolds, opening at a hinge joint that

is unique to frogs.

That hinge — the iliosacral joint,

to be technical — was thought to be absolutely

necessary to the evolution of frog jumping.

But a computer simulation suggests

that jumping may have evolved first

and the joint later to improve their accuracy

and refine their jumps.

Understanding how that works could help design

a prosthetic arm that has both power and finesse.

Of course, there are frogs that

take jumping to a whole other level,

like the gliding tree frog.

It's not flying, but it's certainly falling with style.

[music]