In the summer of 1995, a group of Minnesota children came upon a pond populated by frogs with nine legs, missing legs, a row of limbs fanning out from their backsides, and eyes in the wrong places. Since then, deformed frogs have been turning up in lakes and ponds across the country and as far as Japan.Written by the only journalist granted access to secret "hot spots" where these deformed frogs are tested, and brainstorming sessions among the researchers, this compelling, fast-laced narrative is the first to offer a complete picture of what is quite possibly a global catastrophe in the making. Moving from America's swamps and wetlands to laboratories and the back rooms of government, William Souder dramatically reveals the warning implicit in this outbreak, explaining the importance of frogs to our fragile eco-systems and suggesting what their possible extinction means to the habitability of the planet for all species, including the human race.