SALON

Wednesday, Jan 11, 2012 10:45 PM UTC

Tiny Frog Claimed As World’s Smallest Vertebrate

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Tiny Frog Claimed As World's Smallest VertebrateIn this Aug. 2009 photo released by Louisiana State University, a frog sits on a U.S. dime in this photo taken by Louisiana State University herpetologist Christopher Austin near the Amau River in Papua, New Guinea. The species was recognized Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 as the world’s smallest invertebrate. Austin was studying the area’s rich biodiversity when he and graduate student Eric Rittmeyer found the frog, which they named Paedophyryne amauensis for the village of Amau. The frog out-tinied a Sumatran carp identified in 2006. Its discovery was reported Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE. (AP Photo/Louisiana State University, Christopher Austin)(Credit: AP)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A frog that can perch on the tip of your pinkie with room to spare has been claimed as the world’s smallest vertebrate species, out-tinying a fish that got the title in 2006. But the discoverer of another weensy fish disputes the claim.

A tempest in a thimble, some might say.

An article Wednesday in the journal PLoS One named Paedophryne amauensis (pee-doh-FRY-nee AM-OW-en-sis) as the world’s smallest animal with a spine.

The adult frogs are about three-tenths of an inch long, and a millimeter or so smaller than a carp found on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The frogs are so small that Louisiana State University herpetologist and environmental biologist Christopher Austin had to enlarge close-up photos to describe them.

But the males of a species of deep-sea anglerfish are about 2 mm smaller, said University of Washington ichthyologist Theodore Pietsch, who described them in 2006. The males don’t have stomachs and live as parasites on 1.8-inch-long females.

Austin discovered the tiny frogs — along with another small frog species — in August 2009 while on a trip to Papua New Guinea to study the extreme diversity of the island’s wildlife. He said he knew about the anglerfish but felt that average species size made more sense for comparison.

Steven J. Beaupre, a University of Arkansas scientist and president-elect of the American Society of Icthyologists and Herpetologists, said many vertebrates have males and females of very different sizes, “so it is reasonable that the world’s smallest vertebrate may end up being either the males or the females of some specific fish or amphibian species.”

He said he doesn’t pay attention to “tiniest” reports, but the frogs themselves are a significant discovery.

“The discovery of two new frog species comes as great news against the background of more prevalent accounts of tropical amphibian extinction,” he wrote in an email.

Knowing about such tiny creatures and their ecology, he said, helps scientists “better understand the advantages and disadvantages of extreme small size and how such extremes evolve. Fundamentally, these tiny vertebrates provide a window on the principles that constrain animal design.”

Austin said that since these frogs hatch out as hoppers rather than tadpoles and live on the ground, their existence contradicts the hypothesis that evolution at large and small extremes is linked to life in water.

At least 29 species of minuscule frogs in equatorial regions worldwide live in leaf litter or moss that is moist year-round and eat even tinier invertebrates, creating a previously unknown “ecological guild” of similar animals with similar life habits, he said.

“We realized these frogs were probably doing something incredibly different from what normal frogs do — invading this open niche of wet leaf litter that is full of really tiny insects that other frogs and possibly other creatures weren’t eating,” Austin said.

In August 2009, Austin and graduate student Eric Rittmeyer were collecting and recording the mating calls of frogs at night in a tropical forest near the village of Amau in eastern Papua New Guinea, when they heard a chorus of high-pitched “tinks.”

“This frog has a call that doesn’t sound like a frog at all. It sounds like an insect,” he said. The calls seemed to surround them, and it took a while to be sure they were coming from the ground.

Since they couldn’t locate the noise-maker, they snatched up some habitat, expecting to find a six-legger in it.

“We found it by grabbing a whole handful of leaf litter and putting it into a clear plastic bag and very, very slowly going through that litter leaf by leaf by leaf until we saw that small frog hop off one of those leaves,” he said.

Getting photos took some effort — the frogs can leap 30 times their own length. After hopping around for a bit, they settled down long enough for a close-up or two, Austin said.

Their expedition, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, later turned up another new species of tiny frog, found farther west along the island’s coast. The other is closely related, but a millimeter or so larger, and it had a different call.

Austin estimated that they found 20 previously unknown species in New Guinea, which is such a hotspot of diversity that scientists figure they’ve described only about six-tenths of all the species living there.

Maurice Kottelat, a Swiss scientist who found the tiny carp called Paedocypris progenetica, wrote in an email that it’s hard to compare frogs and fish, because they’re measured differently: frogs from nose-tip to the excretory vent, and fish from nose to tail.

“It is not so interesting to know which is really the smallest. Tomorrow will bring another smallest anyway,” he wrote.

He concluded a long email, “I have a great concern. It is not when will we discover the next smallest, but whether habitats where to discover them will still be there. Or how long will the habitats survive.

“Since the discovery of Paedocypris most of the fragile peat swamps that it inhabits have been destroyed.”

JANET McCONNAUGHEY

More JANET McCONNAUGHEY.

Next Article

You Might Also Like

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

Gripping photos: The people of the Turkey protests (slideshow)

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • The protests take on a festive element as police forces move out of the park and square. Wearing a gas mask, this young man dances to traditional Turkish music in front of Taksim Square’s Ataturk Monument.

  • In Gezi Park since March 31st, this protester, originally caught off-guard by the Government’s teargas and water cannons, went out and bought a Russian army mask from WWII, preparing for what was to come.

  • This rambunctious boy seems to be enjoying the chaos. After taking this picture he threw a stone at the already destroyed building in the background.

  • Forming a line, the police face off directly with protesters in Taksim Square. After a while, they retreated and there was a general cheer – a back-and-forth dance that has been common since the beginning of this protest.

  • An elderly woman in Gezi Park reads the news. The tent community occupying the park was violently destroyed on June 16th.

  • Many different groups had set up booths to promote their cause in Taksim Square and Gezi Park. Standing in front of one, this man waves his flag while posing with conviction.

  • Many home-remedies are used to minimize the effects of tear gas. This woman has put a milky solution on her face, removing her mask after the tear gas dissipated. Before sunrise, the police came again for another round of teargasing.

  • People capitalize on the uprising -- selling flags, beer, gas masks, sky lanterns and spray paint to name just a few of the popular items.

  • On Monday morning, June 11, the police execute a strong offensive. Many plain-clothed police officers, like the ones seen here, clash with protesters in the side streets away from the main stand-off in Taksim.

  • The authorities seem to be most aggressive in the night, pushing protesters away from the square and park. After being teargassed this young woman catches her breath with other protesters on Siraselviler Street.

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Check out the full Bank of America whistleblower details (affidavits) "Read former staff describe getting Target gift cards as a prize for foreclosing on people, and other awful schemes"
363 points364 points | 16 comments
vote
The full Bank of America whistleblower details (affidavits)
318 points319 points | 7 comments
vote
Study: Young people are more liberal than they think they are.
61 points62 points | 22 comments
vote
How cash secretly rules surveillance policy: Today's congressional hearing was a joke. The reason: Firms like Booz Allen bankroll and own Congress. Here's how
42 points43 points | 6 comments
vote
The internal war between House Oversight Committee chair Darrell Issa and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings blew up again Tuesday, when Cummings released the full transcript of a five-hour interview with the conservative Republican IRS screening manager.
39 points40 points | 6 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves": Growing up primate

Recommendations