(Re)Discovery of a Pea Sized Frog

[The Spartan]

Link to Yahoo

Micro-frog found in search for world's lost amphibians
By Christine Lepisto, TreeHugger
Posted Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:12pm PDT

Pea-sized frog is the old world's smallest

The smallest frog known on the Asian, European, or African continents -- and one of the world's tiniest frogs -- was found by a group of scientists searching for "lost amphibians." This pea-sized micro-frog belongs to the species of microhylid, which, as the name suggests, is composed of miniature frogs under 15 millimeters. So why was it "lost"? And, excepting the "awww, cute!" factor, why is it important that this tiny frog has been found?

The micro-frog is a "lost" frog because specimens are known from museum collections that are over 100 years old. According to Dr. Das, one of the team behind this discovery, "Scientists presumably thought they were juveniles of other species, but it turns out they are adults of this newly discovered micro species."

The newly taxonomized species has been named Microhyla nepenthicola after the Nepenthes ampullaria, or pitcher plant, that it lives on. Scientists were lured to the frog's location by the micro-frog's call, but the small size of the tiny amphibians (adult males range from 10.6 to 12.8 mm) made them hard to find. Scientists made closer examinations by encouraging the frogs to jump onto sheets of white paper.

Symbiosis with amazing pitcher plants

Pitcher plants are often carnivorous and use their "pitchers" to collect essential nutrients, as exemplified by specimens such as giant, rat-eating pitcher plants and pitcher plant animal toilets.

But the micro-frog lives symbiotically with the stangely shaped plants, named for the globular protuberances which collect and hold water in the damp, shady forests where they grow. The micro-frogs deposit their eggs on the walls of the plant's pitcher, and the tadpoles grow and metamorphose in the still waters.

Amphibians constitute the most threatened members of the animal family; fully one-third of these species faces extinction. Amphibians are important for controlling insects that can spread disease or harm crops, as well as helping to maintain freshwater ecosystems. Yet they may prove to be our "canary in the coal mine."

In the words of Conservation International's Dr Robin Moore, organizer of the search for lost amphibian species: "Amphibians are quite sensitive to changes in their surroundings, so we hope the discovery of these miniature frogs will help us to understand what changes in the global environment are having an impact on these fascinating animals."

Search for lost amphibians

The micro-frog from Borneo is introduced to the world in the taxonomy journal Zootaxa by Drs. Indraneil Das (Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) and Alexander Haas (Biozentrum Grindel und Zoologisches Museum of Hamburg). The expedition is supported by the Volkswagen Foundation and conducted under the auspices of Conservation International and IUCN's Amphibians Specialist Group, which is conducting a search for lost amphibians.

The search for lost amphibians covers 20 countries on five continents. The updated surveys will "help scientists to understand the recent amphibian extinction crisis."

The next big target for Dr. Das is the Sambas stream toad (Ansonia latidisca) in Indonesia and Malaysia. The toad was last seen in the 1950s. It is believed that increased sedimentation in streams after logging may have contributed to the decline of its population.

I'd never heard of them before so I found this article interesting enough to share with the class. I've posted the picture below, but if it gets cut off you can see it at the link.


Sadly, they're terribly endangered considering we haven't seen them in decades...

[Alyrium Denryle]

Yes they are. I hope that a few of the "lost" frogs that have been thought to be extinct get found again. I would love to see a golden toad outside of our museum collection.

[The Spartan]

Do you happen to know how these little guys handle captivity?

[Alyrium Denryle]

Do you happen to know how these little guys handle captivity?

Micohyla? No. A lot of frogs in their massive massive widely distributed family do pretty well though. You may actually hear members breeding, they sound like a demented sheep.

[Lagmonster]

Micohyla? No. A lot of frogs in their massive massive widely distributed family do pretty well though. You may actually hear members breeding, they sound like a demented sheep.

Perhaps you have noticed the faces homo sapiens makes while breeding. Sex, if anything, is a great source of organic comedy.

That aside, one of these days I'm going to sit down with an expert and let them make their case for the 'amphibians are our canary in the mine shaft' comment earleir in the article. Science broken down into sound bites so tantalizingly brief and alarmist are often overdramatized and subsequently bullshit.

[General Zod]

Micohyla? No. A lot of frogs in their massive massive widely distributed family do pretty well though. You may actually hear members breeding, they sound like a demented sheep.

Perhaps you have noticed the faces homo sapiens makes while breeding. Sex, if anything, is a great source of organic comedy.

That aside, one of these days I'm going to sit down with an expert and let them make their case for the 'amphibians are our canary in the mine shaft' comment earleir in the article. Science broken down into sound bites so tantalizingly brief and alarmist are often overdramatized and subsequently bullshit.

This page has a pretty good explanation of it. http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/biodiversity/a ... ogical.htm

It's basically that amphibians have high degrees of sensitivity to environmental change. So if something is wrong with the amphibian population something is probably damaging your environment.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Micohyla? No. A lot of frogs in their massive massive widely distributed family do pretty well though. You may actually hear members breeding, they sound like a demented sheep.

Perhaps you have noticed the faces homo sapiens makes while breeding. Sex, if anything, is a great source of organic comedy.

That aside, one of these days I'm going to sit down with an expert and let them make their case for the 'amphibians are our canary in the mine shaft' comment earleir in the article. Science broken down into sound bites so tantalizingly brief and alarmist are often overdramatized and subsequently bullshit.

Funny. The difference however is that I have to go into someone's bed room to see their O face. To hear narrow-mouthed toads breed all I (or Spartan) has to do it walk near still shallow water (like a storm retention basin) after it rains. They are everywhere.

The reason frogs are good bioindicators is is that they are on a middle position in the food chain and are thus impacted by fluctuations in both predator and prey populations. They eat everything smaller than them, and most predators bigger than them will eat them at some stage in their life cycle. They are easy to survey--you just have to go out and listen, or dipnet a pond for a few hours in summer. Most also have a biphasic life cycle and their skin is no barrier to any kind of toxins. This makes them sensitive to pollution and habitat disturbances in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats and it is relatively easy to determine which may be responsible for population crashes.

[Anguirus]

That aside, one of these days I'm going to sit down with an expert and let them make their case for the 'amphibians are our canary in the mine shaft' comment earleir in the article. Science broken down into sound bites so tantalizingly brief and alarmist are often overdramatized and subsequently bullshit.

I'd like a citation for this sound bite, please.

Science journalism sucks, full stop, but if you're hearing the same fucking thing all the time, there's truth (a whole buncha papers) behind it. We scientists are neither organized nor motivated enough for some conspiracy. And if you debunk us, we'll love you to pieces.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Last edited by Surlethe on Fri Aug 27, 2010 12:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
fixed an embarrassing spelling mistake (n->b in "bigger")

Holy crap. Yeah that is embarrassing. Thank you

[hongi]

Those two letters are too damn close on the keyboard for comfort.

And if you debunk us, we'll love you to pieces.

I hear this about scientists quite often, that you lot enjoy your theories being tested, pulled apart and disproven. Is it really true, or are you all just a very angry bunch inside?

[General Zod]

Those two letters are too damn close on the keyboard for comfort.

And if you debunk us, we'll love you to pieces.

I hear this about scientists quite often, that you lot enjoy your theories being tested, pulled apart and disproven. Is it really true, or are you all just a very angry bunch inside?

If you're going to debunk a theory, it helps if you're not an ignorant fatty and you actually know what you're talking about when you try to do so.

[hongi]

What the fuck? Don't tell me I needed to add in a smiley or something.

[General Zod]

What the fuck? Don't tell me I needed to add in a smiley or something.

It's not something I'd put outside the realm of possibility of someone being sincere about on here.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Those two letters are too damn close on the keyboard for comfort.

And if you debunk us, we'll love you to pieces.

I hear this about scientists quite often, that you lot enjoy your theories being tested, pulled apart and disproven. Is it really true, or are you all just a very angry bunch inside?

It is a bit of both. It is a bit like here. We enjoy the intellectual conflict and admit it when wrong, we just dont have flame wars.