Press Trust of India
March 09, 2017
WASHINGTON: A new frog
species, which measures just about two centimeters and was discovered in the
Peruvian Andes, has been named after the famous British broadcaster and
naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
While there are already a number
of species named after including mammals, reptiles, invertebrates and plants,
both extinct and extant, not until now has the host of the BBC Natural
History's Life series been honored with an amphibian.
The frog is formally described as
Pristimantis attenboroughi, while commonly it is to be referred to as the
Attenborough's Rubber Frog.
Scientists from Illinois Wesleyan
University and University of Michigan in the US, spent two years
surveying montane forests in central Peru, in order to document the local amphibians
and reptiles and evaluate their conservation statuses.
Their efforts have been rewarded
with several new species
of frogs and a new spectacled
lizard.
Each of these discoveries,
including the Attenborough's Rubber Frog, prove how beneficial it is to take
into account both morphological and the genetic data, while looking for species
new to science.
The Attenborough's rubber frog is
known to inhabit several localities across the Pui Pui Protected Forest, a
nature reserve located at elevations between 3,400 and 3,936 meters above sea
level in central Peru.
The adult males reach size of
14.6-19.2 millimeters in length, while the females are larger measuring between
19.2 and 23.0 millimeters.
The ground color ranges from pale
to dark grey or reddish brown to brownish olive with dark grey scattered
flecks.Juveniles are paler (yellowish to reddish brown) with contrasting dark
brown flecks and distinct stripes.
Due to the amphibian being known
from fewer than ten localities, spread across less than 20,000 square metres,
the species should be deemed either Vulnerable or Endangered, according to the
IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.
However, researchers suggest that
the Attenborough's Rubber frog should be listed as Near Threatened instead,
since the Piu Piu forest is formally protected and still largely unknown, so it
is likely that there are more additional populations of the new species.
On the other hand, factors such
as fungal infections, climate change, pollution and man-made fires continue to
be threats for many Andean amphibians even inside protected areas.
"We dedicate this species to
Sir David Frederick Attenborough in honour for his educational documentaries on
wildlife, especially on amphibians (eg Life in Cold Blood,Fabulous Frogs), and
for raising awareness about the importance of wildlife conservation,"
researchers said.
Among the numerous namesakes of
Sir David Attenborough to date, there are a rare genus of beautiful flowering
plants, a rare butterfly species, commonly known as the Attenborough's
black-eyed satyr, a flightless
weevil species, as well as a number of extinct species.
The study was published in the
journal ZooKeys.
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