New information is flying across the globe again about the world's smallest vertebrate! It was found in Papua New Guinea. A team of researchers led by Christopher Austin of Louisiana State University (including Allen Allison of the Bishop Museum), have discovered an even smaller frog than that recently classified by Fred Kraus also from the Bishop Museum.
The new species was named Paedophryne amauensis (pee-doh-FRY-nee AM-OU-en-sis)
and the adult frog size measures about three-tenths of an inch long.
Not just the world’s smallest frog, or the smallest vertebrate in PNG – it’s the world’s smallest known vertebrate.
Impressive, in its own diminutive sort of way!
A big congrats to Allen, who’s continuing research on the subject is far from just about documenting the smallest this or biggest that – but perhaps more interestingly, why these species evolved to be so small, and what that says about the ecological patterns of a place. It also says potentially interesting things about developmental biology – and one never knows where that sort of thing will lead.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:...l.pone.0029797
The new species was named Paedophryne amauensis (pee-doh-FRY-nee AM-OU-en-sis)
and the adult frog size measures about three-tenths of an inch long.
Not just the world’s smallest frog, or the smallest vertebrate in PNG – it’s the world’s smallest known vertebrate.
Impressive, in its own diminutive sort of way!
A big congrats to Allen, who’s continuing research on the subject is far from just about documenting the smallest this or biggest that – but perhaps more interestingly, why these species evolved to be so small, and what that says about the ecological patterns of a place. It also says potentially interesting things about developmental biology – and one never knows where that sort of thing will lead.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:...l.pone.0029797
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