An astonishing new species of tree frog has been found in the lowlands rainforest of New Guinea. As we know most of the frogs are generally green in color and are called “Tree Forgs” but this creature does not have the same color as its relatives but has a unique chocolate brown color, hence researchers named this newly discovered species, “Chocolate Frog”.
Steve Richards, a frog specialist at the South Australian Museum was the first person who found and spotted “Chocolate Frog” in 2016 in an incredibly challenging habitat. Richard stated that,
“Because the frogs live in an area which is hot, swampy, spiky, contains many crocodiles and has no road, it becomes hard for them to explore. And that could be the reason why it took so long to find this chocolate frog”.
And after years of painstaking research and genetic analysis, Richard and his colleagues declared Litoria mira – Chocolate Frog a new species reports The Guardian. According to research and analysis, “Litoria mira has evolved to become genetically distinct to the point where the two species would not be able to breed.”
Paul Oliver a phylogeneticist in Griffith University and Queensland Museum Paul Oliver, was in charge of the genetic work, who said that,
“What’s a little surprising fact about this discovery is that the well-known and common green tree frog of Australia has a long-overlooked relative living in the lowland rainforests of New Guinea”.
Thus this discovery put him in thinking about how that frog can be found in New Guinea. Oliver further said that they named the newly found Chocolate Frog – Litoria Mira because the word Mira means surprise or strange in Latin.
Researchers said that it can not be concluded that there are no brown species of tree frogs. The Pelodryadidae family consists of 215 species having both Litoria and Ranoidea, many of which are not brighter green in color. The discovery always astonished scientists, as researchers also said that the newly identified amphibian may be more spread across New Guinea.
You can read the full research published in the Australian Journal of Zoology, which focuses more on the Australian tree frog genus Litoria across Australia and New Guinea.
Researchers wrote in their paper that, “Our study is the first to give the clear picture of phylogenetic and phylogeographic data for a nominal frog taxon occurring across these two regions, And it gives the evidence for both established and novel biogeographic hypotheses, as we will argue, recognition of a previously undescribed species.”
The previous year a large group of yellow-colored Indian bullfrogs was seen in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district in July. A short video shared by Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Parveen Kaswan on Twitter shows amphibians croaking and jumping around a small water area. He also said that Indian bullfrogs can change color during monsoon to attract female frogs.
