Froggie Plays Miniature Bongos
Posted on 03/27/2009 1:52:52 PM PDT by JoeProBono
As the smallest known frog species in the world's second largest mountain range, this new amphibian is easy to miss.
But scientists searching the Andes mountains' upper Cosnipata Valley in southern Peru, near Cusco, spotted the coin-size creature--a member of the Noblella genus--in the leaf litter of a cloud forest between 9,925 and 10,466 feet (3,025 and 3,190 meters).
"The most distinctive character of the new species," scientists write in the February issue of the journal Copeia, "is its diminutive size." Females grow to 0.49 inch (12.4 millimeters) at most. Males make it to only 0.44 inch (11.1 millimeters).
What's most surprising is that the frog lives at such high elevations, said study co-author Alessandro Catenazzi, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. In general, larger animals are found at greater heights.
Froggie Plays Miniature Bongos
Its ancestors were 4 feet long, pre-global warming.
Pity they evolved into the French.
"Yeah, I may be four-tenths of an inch long, but I got a big pair of brass ones. I got 'em off the last guy that messed with me."
}:-)4
How long did it take for the illegal holding it to gulp it down.
That a very small frog.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks JoeProBono. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.