Australian Researchers Discover Adorable New ‘Chocolate Frog’ Species

Researchers at Australia’s Queensland Museum have discovered a brand new, cute frog species within the swampy, lowland forests of New Guinea. Named the “chocolate frog”, it has massive, cartoonish eyes and its pores and skin is the color of milk chocolate. The candy-coloured amphibian is carefully associated to the inexperienced tree frog that is frequent in Australia. The researchers found the frog whereas making an attempt to attract a clearer household image of the lineage of the inexperienced tree frog on each islands. Australia and New Guinea have been linked by a land bridge till about 10,000 years in the past and have hosted most of the identical sorts of animals, together with frogs.

These amphibians, identified for his or her leaping skills and croaking sounds, dwell all around the world and are among the many most various animals, with over 6,000 species. The new species was first described by the researchers in a examine revealed just lately within the Australian Journal of Zoology. These researchers travelled to New Guinea and located the ‘chocolate frog’ in a scorching swamp stuffed with crocodiles.

Lead examine creator Paul Oliver, a biologist at Queensland Museum and Griffith University, informed Queensland Museum Network that after the researchers noticed the brand new species, they began calling it ‘chocolate frog’, and the identify acquired caught. Liver added, “What’s a little surprising about this discovery is that the well-known and common green tree frog of Australia has a long-overlooked relative living in the lowland rainforests of New Guinea. Because of this, we named the new frog Litoria Mira because the word ‘Mira’ means surprised or strange in Latin.”

Steve Richards, the co-author of the paper, said the researchers thought the species was probably widespread in New Guinea. “While New Guinea is not a place most Australians know well, many animal groups are shared. So, understanding biodiversity in New Guinea helps us to understand the history and origins of Australia’s unique fauna,” Richards said in a statement.

Queensland Museum CEO Jim Thompson said there is still much to learn about biodiversity in Australia and museums play an important role in “describing and conserving our natural world heritage.”