actual occurrence of ectrodactyly is. wood frog the department of biological sciences at the university of alberta in edmonton, alberta performed a study to estimate deformity levels in wood frogs in areas of relatively low disturbance. after roughly 22,733 individuals were examined during field studies, it was found that only 49 wood frogs had the ectrodactyly deformity. salamanders in a study performed by the department of forestry and natural resources at purdue university, approximately 2000 salamanders (687 adults and 1259 larvae) were captured from a large wetland complex and evaluated for malformations. among the 687 adults, 54 (7.9%) were malformed. of these 54 adults, 46 (85%) had missing (ectrodactyly), extra (polyphalangy) or dwarfed digits (brachydactyly). among the 1259 larvae, 102 were malformed, with 94 (92%) of the malformations involving ectrodactyly, polyphalangy, and brachydactyly. results showed few differences in the frequency of malformations among life-history changes, suggesting that malformed larvae do not have substantially higher mortality than their adult conspecifics. cats and dogs davis and barry 1977 tested allele frequencies in domestic cats. among the 265 cats observed, there were 101 males and 164 females. only one cat was recorded to have the ectrodactyly abnormality, illustrating this rare disease. according to m.p. ferreira, a case of ectrodactyly was found in a two-month-old male mixed terrier dog. in another study, carrig and co-workers also reported a series of 14 dogs with this abnormality proving that although ectrodactyly is an uncommon occurrence for dogs, it is not entirely unheard of.