World's tiniest frogs
This is likely the smallest frog species in the world, discovered in the Andes Mountains' upper Cosnipata Valley in Peru. From National Geographic:
"The most distinctive character of the new species," scientists write in the February issue of the journal Copeia, "is its diminutive size." Females grow to 0.49 inch (12.4 millimeters) at most. Males make it to only 0.44 inch (11.1 millimeters).Coin-Size Frog Found -- One of World's Smallest
What's most surprising is that the frog lives at such high elevations, said study co-author Alessandro Catenazzi, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. In general, larger animals are found at greater heights.
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They look like such a tasty beak-sized meal. I'm surprised birds haven't gobbled them up to extinction.
Not necessarily; AmphibiaWeb claims that Brachycephalus didactylus and Eleutherodactylus iberia are smaller, at approximately 10mm adult length.
The Copeia paper merely claims that this is the smallest frog in the Andes, and 'one of the smallest' in the world.
A few years ago, I went backpacking around Mt. St. Helens in Washington. While hiking near the blasted out north face, I noticed critters bouncing out of my path. At first I thought they were crickets, or some sort of insect like that, but eventually I realized they were actually tiny little frogs. They may not have been quite as small as these, but they were certainly not much larger. They fit on a finger tip. They couldn't have been much more than half an inch. They were really cool, although there were so many of them that we worried about stepping on them.
Great. So now my nightmares about being devoured by roaches will morph into nightmares about being devoured by frogs. Thanks a fraking lot, Boing Boing.
Imagine how small they'd be if they inhabited lower altitudes!
"This looks shopped, I can tell by some of the pixels, and by seeing quite a few shops in my time."
ok, not really. but it does look a little fake-y, and today being what today is...
but no real reason to believe this is fake. frogs get tiny. i want to see a pile of them in a teaspoon.
I'll have one cleansed in finest-quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose.
You could even market them as "Crunchy Frogs" JJASPER!
all I know is The Others are gonna be real pissed if there are no frogs left by the time they get here.
Tiniest pieces of poo all over that finger.
Yup. That there's a small frog, alright.
Awww! He looks a bit like my aquatic dwarf frogs!
Wait 'til you see what's perched on the frog's finger.
tiny little warts.
Woooooo! UC Berkeley! Woooooo! Noah's Bagels and Moe's Books! Wooooo!
Size schmize! The important question is "what happens when you lick 'em?"
The photo is kind of deceptive. That's actually a bullfrog sitting on Paul Bunyan's finger.
I caught lots of tiny frogs as a child. And something about this photo just doesn't look right. The frog should have its feet completely attached to the finger, instead of just the tip of a toe (does it have claws or something?). I'm guessing its a fake.
@ ETHO (#3)
In "weststate" New York, early 70's, there would be times in early summer when frogs (or toads?) like what you describe would abound in the woods. Fingernail sized (or smaller), and hopping about by the hundreds. Hiking on tiptoe was the only to proceed.
This image is obviously "shopped" to those who can't accept the fact that their view of the world is as small as their intellectual vision. I can tell by their pixels...
Across the Andes by frog? Michael Palin was right! )
is anyone else grossed out by the gnarly stuff under his fingernail?