World's Tiniest Frog Found in Papua New Guinea

Discovery News

Jan. 12, 2012 -- With voices hardly louder than an insect's buzz, the tiniest frogs ever discovered are smaller than a coin and hop about the rainforest of the tropical island of Papua New Guinea, report US scientists.

Not only are these little peepers with the big names - Paedophryne amauensis and Paedophryne swiftorum - the smallest frogs known, they are also believed to be the smallest vertebrates on Earth, according to a report published in the science journal PLoS ONE .

Until now the smallest vertebrate was believed to be a transparent Indonesian fish known as Paedocypris progenetica that averaged about eight millimeters.

The largest vertebrate is the blue whale, measuring about 25.8 meters.

The little land frog Paedophryne amauensis comes in at a whopping 7.7 millimeters. The other newly discovered kind, Paedophryne swiftorum, measures a bit over eight millimeters.

The dark 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 or being eaten by bigger predators.

"The ecosystems these extremely small frogs occupy are very similar, primarily inhabiting leaf litter on the floor of tropical rainforest environments," says Austin.

"We now believe that these creatures aren't just biological oddities, but instead represent a previously undocumented ecological guild - they occupy a habitat niche that no other vertebrate does."

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

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