Previously Believed-To-Be-Extinct Species Rediscovered!

Previously Believed to be Extinct - Cardioglossa Cyaneospila Rediscovered!

This week scientists found a frog long-since believed and feared to be extinct. The Bururi long-fingered frog, or Cardioglossa Cyaneospila, last documented to have been seen in 1949, was miraculously rediscovered in a southwestern Burundi forest, located in East Africa. The researchers who claimed the honor of rediscovering the species belonged to the California Academy of Sciences. David Blackburn, one of the two leaders leading the research expedition, was the actual one to find the frog, and surprisingly, he claims that he was expecting to rediscover the long-lost species as far back as December. Blackburn, recounting the story of how he found the Bururi long-fingered frog, said that he first thought he heard the frog’s call, and then walked in that direction, and after pushing aside some bushes, the frog was sitting perfectly on a log. Cardioglossa Cyaneospila is about one and a half inches long, and is grayish blue in color, and is covered with black splotches. David Blackburn stated that he also knew that the frog was male upon capturing it, as he determined its sex from the male’s very distinctive “ring-finger,” an unusually long fourth toe that is covered in spines after which the frog species is named.

The researchers claimed that they could hear other of the species’ frog calls, and although the research team was only able to find one of the species, they collected the frog and returned it the academy’s herpetological collection. The research team plans to use it for genetic studies to figure out how long Cardioglossa Cyaneospila and its relatives in Cameroon have been genetically isolated from each other.  The frogs seem to have chosen for their habitat an intriguing spot for herpetologists, as Burundi borders the vast Congo River Basin, the Great Rift Valley and Lake Tanganyika, the world's second-largest freshwater lake.  Blackburn and his research team have also found dozens of other amphibians in Burundi, many of which had never been identified in the country. They also discovered some "new" species that had yet to be identified. This is largely believed to be a result of the fact that Burundi has until this point been largely unexplored by herpetologists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/03/bururi-long-fingered-frog_n_1400277.html