Thursday, January 12, 2012

Creature Feature: Smallest Frog Discovered

Science Journal PLoS ONE reports that a tiny, tiny frog was discovered in the tropical rainforest of Papua, New Guinea. It should be emphasized that this frog is small, only 7.7 mm (.303 inches) in length. It could crawl into the barrel of your .30-06 and never be seen again, or sit on a dime and give you change. Paedophryne amauensis was discovered by Chris Austin of Louisiana State University, who admitted the frog was hard to find on the rainforest floor among the leaf litter. It is colored dark brown and sounds like an insect when it calls. The diminutive hopper occupies a unique niche in the forest ecosystem, and is more evidence of nature's amazing evolutionary profundity.