7 New Species of Cute Frogs Discovered in Brazil [Pictures]

Researchers have found seven new species of the miniature frog genus Brachycephalus, in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil. Most of the frogs of this genus stay under one centimeter long.

The frogs are mainly distinguishable by skin color and texture. These produce varying levels of a neurotoxin called tetrodoxin, and their bright skin colors are a warning to potential predators.

 "It takes a lot of practice and sometimes it's very frustrating, to go up the mountain for many hours and come back empty-handed," Marcio Pie of the Federal University of Parana told the BBC. "You can hear them singing and there's probably hundreds of them, but you simply can't catch them! Because once you get closer, just from the vibration in the ground, they keep silent for, say, 20 minutes or half an hour. And then you have to go through the leaf litter very carefully with your hands," he said.

Due to their exclusive habitats, researchers warned that the frogs are in danger. They suggested that we may need to start raising them in captivity -- and race to find the rest of them.

Researchers described the newly discovered species of frogs in a paper published in PeerJ.