Herps in the News: Discovery of the Worldest Smallest Frog

           A United States research team on the island of Papua New Guinea, located in the Pacific ocean northeast of the continent Australia, have recently discovered a new species of frog.  This species is scientifically named Paedophryne amauensis and has been established to be the worlds smallest sized frog ever discovered. This frog is literally smaller than the size of a dime, measuring in at a mere 7 mm long.  It has a moderately larger relative by the name of Paedophryne swiftorum.  The research team had a challenging task trying to seek out the frogs for a couple reasons.  For one thing the frogs are extremely small and contain concealing camouflage, which helps them remain hidden amongst the leaf liter on the forest floor.  Secondly, they have evolved an unusual call that mistakenly gets interpreted as almost an insect call.  Research leader Chris Austin stated that because the forest was so loud at night, their distinctive call actually helped them stand out from other animals.  Since the size of the frog was so incredibly small, and it was so dark, the researches had to undergo numerous futile attempts of snatching and grabbing piles of leaves before eventually obtaining some of them. One interesting characteristic of this frog is that is possess almost completely transparent limbs that are practically see through. This is extremely interesting and could prove to be a valuable asset in remaining hidden from predators.  The geographic location that these amauensis frogs were found was in the eastern Papua New Guinea forests. Since most frogs eat larger insects and prey, the amauensis's ability to hide amongst the leaf litter and forage for incredibly smaller insects helps insure their survival rates.  One of their particular predators is the scorpion. They dwell low to the ground and have good senses capable of locating these tiny frogs at night time.  Some additional research in different forests around the globe has also proved to contain tiny species of these frogs within the damp, moist leaf litter as well.  Therefore, it can be established that this ecological niche is best for this extremely small species of frog and will continue to inhabit different types of their species throughout many forests. Prior to the amauensis species of frog, the title of "worlds smallest frog" belonged to the Brazilian gold frog, or Brachycephalus didactylus. But this has since been changed due to the discover of the Paedophryne amauensis (Black, 2012).  I think this frog is extremely interesting because of how extremely tiny it is and how it has to make its living feeding on tiny vertebrates.  Also the fact that they have transparent feet and forelimbs.  I commend this group of U.S. researchers who struggled to find the worlds smallest frog and would love to go exploring around some of Shelby Forest's state parks and see if I can discover one of these, what seems like, microscopic frogs.                

Picture 2: (Practically translucent limbs of for both Species)

(Picture 1: Paedophryne amauensis in comparison to a 18 mm dime)

Works Cited 

Black, Richard. January 11, 2012.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16491477. Web.

Pictures Cited

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16491477