Capital Wired

Keeps You Updated

Saturday, January 16, 2021
Log in
  • Headlines
  • Business
  • Health
  • Tech & Science
  • Sports
  • World
  • US
  • Latest News
    • How To Make Your Own Home-Brewed Morphine
    • Using Mouthwash Too Often Puts You at Risk of Obesity and Diabetes
    • Walmart to Solve its Supply Chain Issues and Further Cut Down on Costs
    • The World’s Most Expensive Christmas Decorations
    • Netflix Hopes to Balance Data Limit With Great Video Quality
    • Joji Morishita says Japan Will Resume Whaling
    • The Most Beloved Plastic Surgeries Among Americans
    • Skype for Web Allows Non-Users to Take Part In Its Online Chats

Pages

  • About Capital Wired
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Reprint & Licensing
  • Staff
  • Terms of Use

Recent Posts

  • Here’s Why Your Brain Keeps Worrying about Everything June 29, 2018
  • Don’t Throw That Sunscreen after Summer Is Up June 29, 2018
  • Analysts: Currency War between U.S. and China Might Be Looming June 28, 2018
  • Starbucks Rival The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Opening 100 Shops June 27, 2018
  • Study Finds We Are Alone in the Universe June 26, 2018
  • Restaurant Owner Not Sorry for Booting Sarah Sanders June 26, 2018
  • Beware of the Hidden Salt in Your Food! June 25, 2018

Seven New Miniature Frog Species Have Been Discovered

June 5, 2015 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Email, RSS Follow

Miniature Frog Species

It turns out that tiny discoveries have large value as a team of researchers has found seven (7) new species of miniature frogs living on seven (7) different mountains in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, following a five (5) year expedition.

The colorful animals are so small that they can sit comfortably on your finger nail, and it’s hard not to think of the word “adorable” when describing them. The newly discovered (7) species can be distinguished from one and other by their skin colors and textures, as well as the mountain top that they each live on.

The study, published in the journal PeerJ, informs that all seven (7) species of frogs belong to the genus Brachycephalus, known for including tiny members with bright colors, but also highly poisonous skin that produces a neurotoxin called tetrodoxin. Their jumping abilities are not the best in the world.

In fact, these animals are some of the smallest vertebrates on earth, with adults growing no larger than one (1) centimeter long (or 0.3 inches), making them smaller than most cockroaches these days.

Due to their size, their bodies have also been optimized by undergoing transformations. The miniature frogs only have three (3) toes on their back legs, and only have two (2) fingers on their front legs. For comparison, most of the regular sized frogs have five (5) toes on their back legs, and four (4) fingers on their front legs.

What’s possibly even more remarkable about the discovery is that members belonging to the genus Brachycephalus usually only find suitable habitat on one or two (1 or 2) mountains in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, not seven (7), and so the species are typically separated from one and other by entire valleys. They live in what scientists call “sky islands”.

The team of researchers had a frustrating and nightmareish time trying to find the amphibians. They heard the frogs singing long before they ever laid eyes on them, and they had to follow the sound in order to find them. Even when the researchers were close to the animals they were still hard to detect being as small as they are.

Marcio Pie, professor at the Federal University of Parana in Brazil, gave a statement explaining that “You can hear them singing and there’s probably hundreds of them, but you simply can’t catch them! Because once you get closer, just from the vibration in the ground, they keep silent for, say, twenty (20) minutes or half an hour. And then you have to go through the leaf litter very carefully with your hands”.

Professor Pie went on to say that it takes a lot of practice and it becomes a very frustrating experience to go explore mountains for hours on end and come back empty-handed.

In addition to this field work typically involves two (2) to eight (8) hours of steep trails in order to get to the sites, and then you have to spend the same amount of time in order to get back.

Professor Pie warns that the miniature frogs are in danger of going extinct as their living habitats are restricted to either cloud forests or just a handful of adjacent mountaintops. Not only are the cloud forests extremely sensitive to climate changes, but so are the frogs. On top this, their habitats are also threatened by deforestation.

Image Source: guim.co.uk

Email, RSS Follow

Rebecca McGhee

Rebecca McGhee is a valuable contributor for several publications and online platforms. Having graduates with a degree in Computer Science, her interest lies mostly in this area. Yet, she finds any tech-related topic or scientific topic is a challenge worth meeting. She enjoys turning her own research projects in worthy contributions that reach the large public. And mostly, she is grateful for all the feedback she receives from readers, as she believes it aids her in permanently improving her style of writing, beyond the scientific style she is accustomed to.

Filed Under: Tech & Science

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Articles

dc logo on black galaxy background

Ava DuVernay to Direct DC’s New Gods Adaptation

March 16, 2018 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

leonardo davinci's signature in black

Is DaVinci’s Record Breaking Painting Authentic?

November 20, 2017 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

stephen hawking

Stephen Hawking Makes Gloomy Prediction For Earth In A 100 Years

May 7, 2017 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

"Dwayne Johnson not dead"

Dwayne Johnson Died this Week or Not

January 19, 2016 By Jason Leathers 3 Comments

There Are At Least Three More Seasons of Game of Thrones To Go

July 31, 2015 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Homelessness Soars in L.A., Officials Pledge to House Everybody by 2016

May 12, 2015 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

FBI Releases National Report on Slain Police Officers, Figures are Alarming

May 12, 2015 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

New York Nuclear Plant Partially Shut Down due to Hudson Oil Slick

May 11, 2015 By Jason Leathers 2 Comments

Obama Draws Heat from Democrats over Asia Trade Deal

May 9, 2015 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Florida Governor Changes Stance on Obamacare Once More, Budget on Hold

May 9, 2015 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

Secret Service to add an Extra Layer of Spikes to White House Fence

May 8, 2015 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

Police Arrested Suspect in death of Student who tried to Sell Car on Craigslist

May 8, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen 1 Comment

AccuWeather.com: 2015 Atlantic Tropical Storm Season is Officially Open

May 7, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

Illinois Student Found Dead after Trying to Sell his Car on Craigslist

May 7, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen 2 Comments

Related Articles

  • ET movie

    Study Finds We Are Alone in the Universe

    Jun 26, 2018
  • Sarah Huckabee Sanders

    Restaurant Owner Not Sorry for Booting Sarah Sanders

    Jun 26, 2018
  • New Type of Photosynthesis Spotted in Blue-Green Algae

    Jun 20, 2018
  • Tropical fish and coral reef

    Coral Reefs Save Us from Flooding (Study)

    Jun 14, 2018
  • NASA astronaut on the moon

    NASA Astronauts Warmed Up the Moon in the 1970s

    Jun 12, 2018
  • Antarctic landscape

    Antarctica Experiencing Routine Earthquakes Like Any Other Continent

    Jun 5, 2018
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch

    SpaceX Launches Powerful Communications Satellite into Orbit

    Jun 5, 2018
  • Planet Pluto

    Scientists Have New Theory About Pluto’s Formation

    May 30, 2018
  • The Milky Way

    NASA Uses Lasers to Re-Create Coldest Spot in the Universe

    May 22, 2018
  • Plastic bottle on a sand beach

    Earth Has Had 33 Years of Above-than-Average Temperatures

    May 21, 2018

Categories

  • Business
  • Headlines
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Tech & Science
  • US
  • World

Copyright © 2021 capitalwired.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Contact

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more.