Frog Guild In The Leaf Litter (World's Tiniest Frogs Found) (From AFP)

 

Dwarfed by a dime, Paedophryne amauensisinhabits New Guinean rain forests.  Photographcourtesy Christopher Austin, Louisiana State University.

    Withvoices hardly louder than an insect's buzz, the tiniest frogs ever discoveredare smaller than a coin and hop about the rainforest of the tropical island of PapuaNew Guinea, US scientists said Wednesday. 

    Notonly are these little peepers with the big names -- Paedophryne amauensis andPaedophryne swiftorum -- the smallest frogs known to man, they are alsobelieved to be the smallest vertebrates on Earth, said the report in the sciencejournal PLoS ONE.

         Until now the smallest vertebrate was believed to be a transparentIndonesian fish known as Paedocypris progenetica that averaged about eightmillimeters (one-third inch).

        The largest vertebrate is theblue whale, measuring about 25.8 meters (yards).

   Thelittle land frog Paedophryne amauensis comes in at a whopping 7.7 millimeters,or less than one-third of an inch. The other newly discovered kind, Paedophryneswiftorum, measures a bit over eight millimeters.

  "It was particularly difficult to locatePaedophryne amauensis due to its diminutive size and the males' high pitchedinsect-like mating call," said Louisiana State University scientist ChrisAustin, who discovered them. 

  "But it's a greatfind." 

      Thedark brown frogs with bluish-white specks have likely existed for a long time,underfoot and out of sight on the rainforest floor, eating smaller prey orbeing eaten by bigger predators.

    "Theecosystems these extremely small frogs occupy are very similar, primarilyinhabiting leaf litter on the floor of tropical rainforest environments,"said Austin. 

 

 
    "We nowbelieve that these creatures aren't just biological oddities, but insteadrepresent a previously undocumented ecological guild -- they occupy a habitatniche that no other vertebrate does."

   In fact, judging by the frequency of male mating calls they heard,Austin said the tiny frogs might be spaced as close as 50 centimeters (20inches) from each other on ground beneath the leaves. 



NOTE:  The rain outside, which hasbeen showering steadily forat least 12 hours, woke me up.  I planned to work on something I was dreaming about,something that helped to botherme awake, and then I learned the overnight news of Paedophryne amauensis’ and Paedophryneswiftorum’s debut and it gripped me.




1.Meet The Rain -- Peter Blegvad and Syd Straw Live At St. Ann's, BrooklynHeights, 1992 (link)



2.  SpaceballRicochet -- T. Rex live performance, 1972 (link)