New Tiny Frog Species Discovered; Smallest Known Frogs In The World As Small As A Thumbnail

Seven species of frogs have recently been discovered in India. The discovery includes four miniature frogs and all the species belong to genus Nyctibatrachus.

According to a report, the frog species belonging to genus Nyctibatrachus are considered night frogs due to their dark colors. This new discovery of seven frog species had been done in a course of five years. University of Delhi's scientists made extensive expeditions on India's Western Ghat's region. This region is considered to be an amphibian and global biodiversity spot.

The same report indicated that these four frog species that has recently been discovered are among the smallest known frogs in the world. These tiny frogs are as small as 12mm and they all grow of up to 16mm.

As reported, these tiny frogs can sit comfortably on a coin or a thumbnail. Sonali Garg, who is one of the team researchers of the University of Delhi, shared that the team had been surprised on the abundance of the frog species in the area.

He noted that these tiny frogs may have been overlooked by researchers because of the size and the secretive habitats. The researchers studied the DNA, physical features and call patterns of the frog species.

Meanwhile, the discovery of the frog species raised the total number of known night frogs to 35. The four smallest frog species that have been discovered are Nyctibatrachus manalari, N. pulivijayani, N. robinmoorei and N. sabarimalai. These four newly discovered frog species measure from 0.5 to 0.6 inches.

The other frog species discovered together with the four are slightly bigger in size. These measure from 0.7 inches to 0.8 inches. The largest among the new frog species is 1.5 inches in size. The Western Ghat where these frogs were discovered is home to several species. In fact, there already were discoveries of rare species prior to the newly discovered frog species.