Monsanto’s Roundup, which is the most popular herbicide used today, has been found to ignite morphological changes in amphibians.
The research, conducted using tadpoles, found that environmentally relevant concentrations of Roundup are enough to cause two species of amphibians to actually change shape.
This is the first research to show that herbicides can have such an affect on animals.
The cages also contained large
predators, which naturally cause changes in tadpole morphology.
These natural changes include a larger tail, due to chemical
What’s more, the combination of the naturally emitted chemicals and Roundup caused the tadpoles’ tails to grow twice as large.
Seeing as tadpoles alter body shape in order to properly survive in its environment, the forced changes from herbicides like Roundup can put the animals at a disadvantage.
In addition to physically altering tadpoles, Roundup has also been shown to be contributing to the decline of butterfly populations, though in a different way.
Similar to how pesticides have been
contributing to the bee decline, Monsanto’s Roundup has been tied to
decrease in the population of monarch butterflies by killing the
very plants that the butterflies rely on for habitat and food.
know enough to cease use of the corporation’s products, but there
are undoubtedly further concerns yet to be revealed.