A group of researchers made a surprising discovery in Rio de Janeiro. Among the vast diversity of Atlantic forest in Nova Friburgo, in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, environmentalists found a new species of frog that is the same size as a penny coin. Not surprisingly, it went unnoticed.
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Its scientific name is Brachycephalus clarissae, a tribute to the institution's researcher, Clarissa Canedo, who is a specialist in Brazilian amphibians. The animal was named clarissa gold drop and it was its array of different colors that captured the researchers' attention.
“It has a yellow belly, reddish spots all over its body and an 'X'-shaped mark on its back,” explained researcher José Pombal Jr.
Learn more about the new species of frog
These small amphibians known as golden pingo, flea frog or pumpkin frog have as their natural habitat the Atlantic Forest of Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira. Much of this species is colorful, which indicates the presence of a neurotoxin in their skin that can be fatal to their predators.
The first specimen of this species was found during an ecological study carried out by researchers from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). This is the 38th animal of the genus Brachycephalus.
According to the researchers, this frog does not go through the larval (tadpole) stage like most other known frogs. “He is born like this, like a miniature frog. It reaches up to 9.6 mm in the case of males, but almost 11 mm in the case of females” revealed Pombal Jr. “Including the anatomy of these tiny animals defies science, and we have been trying to understand a little more about why they have this size".
Preservation of the new species
The researcher also pointed out that it has become a concern of scientists to preserve them and others in the same region. “We need to have an idea about which species are and where they are in order to define priority conservation areas. Losing any population of these little frogs would possibly mean the complete extinction of the species, which is quite serious. Our aim is to prevent that from happening.”
To conclude that this is a new species, the team studied the external morphology of the frog in question and performed molecular and osteological analyses.
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