India seems to include a new species in its list of reptiles. Professor S D Biju, our very own “Frogman of India”, has discovered the World’s smallest frog known to mankind. The professor is popular for his work on amphibian with his Delhi University team at Western Ghats and has already discovered seven such species.
Four of these newly found species measure body length of mere 10-15 mm and can fit on your thumbnail.
Can you believe it…Thumbnail!
The species comes under the category genus Nyctibatrachus, which is also known as night frogs. It surprised David Wake an evolutionary biologist in University of California, as the last discovered Nyctibatrachids are comparatively larger.
"These tiny frogs can sit comfortably on a coin or a thumbnail," said Sonali Garg of the University of Delhi, a team member who found this new creature.
Soon after the discovery, the International Union for Conservation of Nature gave immediate attention to the subject with the head of Amphibian Special Group, Dr Ariadne Angulo, who demanded the council to give the species immediate priority to assess their safety in the global extinction risk.
The new species is said to be found around marsh vegetation or damp forest leafs, unlike other genus frogs they are considerately more stream dwelling.
The species are also said to be common found around the nation, however were overlooked because of their size and secretive habitat.
This discovery can provide an insight in the evolution of frogs throughout the years in Western Ghats, which is considered a global amphibian hotspot.
The species are facing many threats considering their size and ignorance of humans.
Dr Angulo feels this extinction assignment was necessary to preserve the species as these species are range restricted and impacted by threats.
