A team of
biologists surveying a remote and largely unexplored part of the Andes in
Ecuador have described a new species of tree frog that’s dark brown in color,
with bright orange flecks dotting its body.
The
researchers have named the tree frog Hyloscirtus
hillisi, after David Hillis, a U.S. evolutionary biologist known for his
work on the Hyloscirtus genus of tree frogs.
While the
researchers don’t have an estimate of the frog’s population, they think its
numbers are likely low.
The
species’ small habitat also lies near a large-scale mining operation, putting
the frog at immediate risk of extinction.
A team of
biologists surveying remote parts of the Cordillera del Cóndor (Condor mountain
range) in Ecuador’s eastern Andes have described a species of tree frog that’s
new to science.
The dark
brown frog with bright orange flecks dotting its body wasn’t easy to find. The
researchers had to walk along very steep terrain in the largely unexplored
Cordillera del Cóndor to reach the slopes of a tabletop limestone mountain
where they encountered the frog. Moreover, the frogs tended to blend with the
environment, making them hard to spot.
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