Researchers discovered new species of frogs which are smaller than a penny in the valley of Mexico. It is named Craugastor Candelariensis.
The male frogs in the species can grow only up to 13 millimeters. The frogs are direct developing. They don’t hatch as tadpoles. These frogs are originally found in the forest valley of Mexico and are the tiniest and bottom-most member of the food chain.
Also, Read | New Species Of Frogs Discovered In Mexico
A researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, Tom Jameson stated –
With millions of these frogs living in the leaf litter, we think they’re likely to play a hugely important role in the ecosystem as a source of food for everything else, from lizards to predatory birds.
Until now, these new species have gone unnoticed because they’re small and brown and look similar to other frogs. These frogs live in the dark, humid leaf litter of the forests, which is like a secret world – we don’t know anything about what goes on there. We don’t understand their behaviour, how they socialise, or how they breed.
These frogs have utterly fascinating lifestyle.
While examining the relationships among 500 specimens of frogs that had been collected in Mexico, researchers from the University of Cambridge, the Natural History Museum, and the University of Texas at Arlington discovered these new species.
Other than this, 2022 was a significant year for science. This year, researchers at the Natural History Museum in London discovered new species of flora and fauna, including 84 new beetle species, 34 new moth species, 23 new moss animal species, and 13 new trematode bug species. 6 new species of frogs, each hardly larger than a penny, were also found.