Rediscovered Frog

An Australian frog thought extinct for 30 years has been rediscovered. (News source.)

Some New Species

A new killifish from Mozambique has medical research potential. (News source.)

A new frog from Vietnam is named after a Hong Kong hedge fund manager. (News source.)

Another Lungless Caecilian

A new species of caecilian, Caecilita iwokramae, has been determined to be lungless. While not the first such caecilian, apparently it is distinctly different from the other lungless caecilian. (News source.)

Chipmunk vs Toad

Chipmunks apparently have a taste for frog (or toad) legs... (News source.)

Mount Bosavi Expedition

A BBC documentary crew sent to PNG's Mount Bosavi found among other critters, a new species of frog (news source), and a new giant rat (news source).

New North American Salamander

A tiny new salamander has been discovered in the Appalachians. It has been named Urspelerpes brucei. (News source.)

A new genus and species of lungless salamander (family Plethodontidae) from the Appalachian highlands of the south-eastern United States
C. D. Camp, W. E. Peterman, J. R. Milanovich, T. Lamb, J. C. Maerz, D. B. Wake
Journal of Zoology
Published Online: Jun 22 2009 12:04PM

Ecuador: Possible New (Small) Species

A team from Conservation International has come up with a number of possible new reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates in the forested mountains of Cordillera del Condor. Photos here. (Via Kevin Stewart)

More on Japanese Falling Tadpoles

About 70 more dead tadpoles have been found in Ishikawa Prefecture, on a bridge walkway. (News source.)

Falling Tadpoles

A Japanese coastal town (Nanao) has experienced a fall of tadpoles. A similar fall was reported from Hakusan. (News source, and here.)

Bunch of Frogs

Approx. 200 new frogs have been identified in Madagascar. (News source, via Kevin Stewart)

Strange Toad

New herps aren't uncommonly discovered, but here's an odd-looking toad recently found in Tanzania. (Gallery image.)

Tanzanian Herp Hotspot

17 new species of reptiles and amphibians are reported from the South Nguru Mountains in Tanzania. (News source.)

Frog: Blue Bones, Green Blood

A new Cambodian bush frog has been discovered, this one having green blood and turquoise bones. Biliverdin (metabolic waste usually processed in the liver) is passed into the bloodstream, which may help with camouflage (the skin being translucent) and also might make the frog unpalatable to predators. (News source.)

7 New Glassfrogs

Seven new glassfrogs have been described from Ecuador. (News source.)

Mistfrog Rediscovery

The tiny armoured mistfrog, believed extinct since 1991 after the chytrid fungus devastated northern Queensland, has been rediscovered. (News source.)

Frog Makes Own Claws

Trichobatrachus robustus, and at least 9 of the 11 species of Astylosternus frogs in Africa (mostly Cameroon) have the ability, when attacked, to break the small bones on which their claws are held in their toes, contracting a muscle to push the claws through their skin for defense. (News source.)

White Tadpoles

Albino tadpoles have been reported from a pond in Wales. (News source.)

First Lungless Frog

A rare aquatic frog, Barbourula kalimantanensis, from Borneo has been confirmed as the only known (so far) lungless frog. The frog "lives in cold, fast-flowing water, they noted, so loss of lungs might be an adaptation to a combination of factors: a higher oxygen environment, the species’s presumed low metabolic rate, severe flattening of their bodies that increases the surface area of their skin, and selection for negative buoyancy—meaning that the frogs would rather sink than float." (Eurekalert)

Ogama

Here's a short piece on a Japanese folkloric creature, the Ogama (or giant toad).

New North American Frog

A recent study has described a new species, the Cajun chorus frog, Pseudacris fouquettei, from "Louisiana, Arkansas, western Mississippi, eastern Texas and Oklahoma and far southern Missouri." (News source.) (Color photo.) (Description abstract.)

End of an Era

David Attenborough has filmed his last wildlife series, Life in Cold Blood, about reptiles and amphibians. (News source.)

Dart Frog

A pic of the new golden dart frog previously mentioned...

New Golden Dart Frog

A new golden dart frog has been discovered, endemic to "a 20 hectare area in Colombia’s Cundinamarca region." It was discovered by a group of youth under the Conservation Leadership Programme. Doesn't look like it has been scientifically described yet, but they are calling it the "golden frog of Supatá." (News source.)

Trinity Western Aliigator?

April 2007, a splashing is seen in the water of a ravine near Trinity Western University. Searches discovered drag marks and claw marks. Is a reptile loose in Langley, British Columbia?

Despite searches and traps, no additional signs were found according the May 1st, 2007 Vancouver Province newspaper account. Yet, what did the people see?

Or, was this as the newspaper account hints a salamander of some sort? After all the account quotes one Barrie Alden the “King of Giant Salamanders” .

British Columbia is no stranger to possible oversized salamanders (or salamander appearing critters) . Pitt Lake, Fraser River, Chilliwack Lake, Cultus Lake and Nitnat Lake all have their reported oversized salamanders or “black alligators”.
Is the Trinity University Alligator another of the cryptic salamanders of British Columbia? Or was it simply a Beaver or Muskrat?

Mangalore: Two new species of frogs found

MANGALORE Feb 20:

Two zoology professors-cum-researchers, one from Mangalore and another from Japan, have said that they have found two new species of frogs in the Western Ghats.

The new species of bush frog, which belongs to genus Philautus, are Philautus luteolus and Philautus tuberohumerus.

S. Hareesh Joshy, Head, Department of Zoology, St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, and Mitsuru Kuramoto, Emiretus Professor, Fukuoka University, Japan, have found them in Kudremukh and Kogadu region in the Western Ghats.

Philautus luteolus is a medium-sized yellow colour frog with a few indistinct markings.
In Latin, "luteolus'' means yellow. Hence, they called it by the same name. It has pointed longer snout and does not have noticeable black markings.

Advertisement calls (calls made by male frogs to invite females for breeding) of these species are that they produce trills (sound) consisting of short phase and long phase. This species are present in Kudremukh and Kirundadu areas in the Western Ghats, Mr. Joshy told The Hindu.

Philautus tuberohumerus is a tiny dark brown frog. This species has an extension of bone anterially in the tubero-humerus region.

It can be easily identified by its small size and absence of a papilla on the tongue. As it has an extension of bone in its tubero-humerus region, it got the name. It produces sharp and metallic sounds and is seen in Chikmagalur and Kudremukh areas, he said.

Both the new species have adhesive pads in their legs, Mr. Joshy said.In India, there are 260 species of frogs. Of them, 135 species are found in the Western Ghats.

They have published the findings of the research on the new species in the scientific journal, "Current Herpetology'', published by the Herpetologist Society of Japan.

Mr. Joshy is involved in research on bio-diversity of frogs in Western Ghats for the past 12 years and has published scientific papers in national and international journals.

He obtained his Ph.D from Mangalore University for his research on "Cytogenetic studies of anurans of Western Ghats''.

Rondano Bio-diversity Research Laboratory at St. Aloysius College is involved in research on frogs. The research activities are supported by the college.

New Indian Caecilian

Earlier it was reported on a new species of caecilian from Goa, India. Called 'immandehavu' . The description of this species has now been printed in Zootaxa 1409: 51-59 (2007) by G. Bhatta, K.P. Dinesh, P. Prashanth and N.U. Kulkarni in a paper entitled "A new species of Gegeneophis Peters (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae) from Goa, India".

The species differ from the other eight known caecilian members of the genus Gegeneophis in India by the presence of visible eyes, over 120 annuli and over 75 secondary annular grooves.

New Sri Lanka Frog

In Zootaza 1403: 55-68 (2007) a new species of frog from Sri Lanka is described.

In the paper A new species of endemic frog belonging to genus Nannophrys Gunther, 1869 (Anura: Dicoglossinae) from Sri Lanka the authors S.S. Fernando, L.J. Mendis Wickramasingha and R.K. Rodirigo outline the fourth species of the genus Nannophrys.

In 2004 and 2005 nine (9) specimens of the amphibian were collected. These came from Kokagala, Padiyatalawa of the Ampara District and from Yakunattela of the Bibile of the Monaragala District in Uva province.

The new frog is distinct from other Nannophrys by:

"...distal subarticular tubercle and penultimate subarticlar tubercles of the 4th toe are well separated (vs. these two tubercles close in all other species of the genus). Supernumerary tubercle absent or smaller than penultimate subarticular tubercle on the 4th toe. A hard sharp narrow symphysial knob and close pair of sharp apophyses on the anterior edge of the mandible and symphysial knob lower than two opophyses (vs. all other species with a blunt wider symphysial knob and wider pair of apophyes on the anterior edge of the mandible, and symphysial knob of the same height or higher than two aophyses). Palmer tubercles comparatively smaller, inner palmar tubercle separated from outer palmer tubercle (vs. other relatives posses palmer tubercles comparatively large, inner palmer tubercle connected with outer palmar tubercle)."