World’s smallest “fanged” frogs found in Indonesia

2023-12-21 11:27:12

MADRID, 21 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Researchers have identified in Indonesia a kind of new frog to science. It is an amphibian that is the size of a coin, unlike its half-kilo cousins, and tiny fangs, making it the smallest fanged frog ever discovered and, furthermore, it is the only amphibian that lays its eggs in the leaves of trees, and the males take care of the nests, according to a study published in the journal ‘PLoS ONE’.

Generally, the teeth are like small pointed spikes on the upper jaw, but a group of frogs that live in the streams of Southeast Asia have a strange adaptation: two bony “fangs” protruding from its lower jaw.

They use these fangs to fight each other for territory and mates, and sometimes even to hunt hard-shelled prey such as giant centipedes and crabs.

“This new species is tiny compared to other fanged frogs on the island where it was found, about the size of a quarter,” said Jeff Frederick, a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum in Chicago and lead author of the study. study, who conducted the research as a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley–Many frogs in this genus are gigantic, weighing up to a kilogram. On the large end, this new species weighs about the same as a coin of ten cents.”

Working with the Bogor Museum of Zoology, a team from Berkeley’s McGuire Laboratory found the frogs on Sulawesi, a rugged, mountainous island that is part of Indonesia.

“It is a gigantic island with a vast network of mountains, volcanoes, lowland jungle and cloud forests in the mountains.. The presence of all these different habitats means that the magnitude of the biodiversity of many plants and animals that we find there is unreal, rivaling places like the Amazon,” explains Frederick.

While walking through the jungle, members of the joint US-Indonesian amphibian and reptile research team noticed something unexpected in tree leaves and moss-covered rocks: nests of frog eggs.

Frogs are amphibians and lay eggs encapsulated in gelatin, rather than a hard, protective shell. To prevent them from drying out, most amphibians put them in water. To the research team’s surprise, they continued to observe masses of terrestrial eggs on leaves and mossy rocks several meters above the ground. Shortly after, they began to see the little brown frogs.

“Normally, when looking for frogs, we scan the banks of streams or wade through them to see them directly in the water –explains Frederick–. However, after repeatedly monitoring the nests, the team began to find attendant frogs sitting on leaves hugging their small nests. “This close contact with their eggs allows the parent frogs to coat them with compounds that keep them moist and free of bacterial contamination. and fungal.

Closer examination of the amphibian parents revealed not only that they were tiny members of the fanged frog family, with fangs barely visible, but that the frogs caring for the clutches of eggs were all males. “The behavior of males as egg guardians is not totally unknown in all frogs, but it is quite uncommon.”recognizes Frederick.

Frederick and his colleagues hypothesize that the frogs’ unusual reproductive behavior could also be related to their smaller-than-usual fangs. Some relatives of these frogs have larger fangs, which help them defend against competition for places in the river where they lay their eggs.

Since these frogs developed a way to lay their eggs away from water, they may have lost the need for such large, imposing fangs. (The scientific name of the new species is ‘Limnonectes phyllofolia’; phyllofolia means “leaf nester.”)

“It is fascinating that with each subsequent expedition to Sulawesi we continue to discover new and diverse modes of reproduction,” says Frederick–. Our findings also underscore the importance of conserving these special tropical habitats.“.

“Most of the animals that live in places like Sulawesi are unique, and habitat destruction is an increasingly pressing conservation problem to preserve the hyperdiversity of species we find there,” he warns. Learning about animals like these frogs, which are found nowhere else on Earth, helps advocate for the protection of these valuable ecosystems.“.