December 3, 2023

Photo of the week: Discovering a new species of tadpoles

Photo of the week: Discovering a new species of tadpoles

Little creatures of the lush land

The smallest specimen is only 13 mm long. We are talking about six species of frogs in Mexico that experts have recently identified. The animals are very small, the size of a fingernail – for further comparison: the diameter of the coin in the photo is 28 mm. Researchers led by Tom Jameson of the University of Cambridge introduced species of genus Kragastor In Herpetological Monographs Before.

Small animals live in the lush forest floor, very young animals tend to be found at lower altitudes and larger specimens are found at higher altitudes. The newly discovered species also develops differently from other frogs. They do not train tadpoles, but fully developed amphibians hatch from eggs. For their study, Jameson and his team examined for the first time about 500 specimens of tadpoles whose specimens are in museums. Then genetic analysis and tomography were used to identify the new species. They are called the youngest Candelariensis Kragastor.

According to Jameson, many areas remain unexplored in the Mexico Basin, where amphibians live in very limited habitats. Therefore, the zoologist assumes that many species of tadpoles are still undiscovered there.

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