In Mexico, Researchers Discover New Species Of Frogs Smaller Than A Penny

The year 2022 was an important year for science. Scientists at London’s Natural History Museum discovered new species of flora and fauna this year, which include 84 new species of beetles, 34 species of moths, 23 species of moss animals and 13 species of trematode insects. They also discovered six new species of frogs, all of them smaller than a penny.

The species were found in the forests of Mexico. One of the species is named Craugastor Candelariensis. The male frogs in the species can grow only up to 13 millimetres. The frogs are direct developing, meaning that they don’t hatch as tadpoles but rather as fully-formed frogs.

The frog’s size makes it the tiniest and bottom-most member of the food chain in the Valley of Mexico, where they were originally found. Tom Jameson, who is a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and lead author of the paper, told The Independent, “With millions of these frogs living in the leaf litter, we think they’re likely to play a hugely important role in the ecosystem as a source of food for everything else, from lizards to predatory birds.”

Researchers, including people from the University of Cambridge, the Natural History Museum and the University of Texas at Arlington, discovered the new species while studying the relationship between 500 frog specimens that had been collected in Mexico.

Mr Jameson further revealed to the British newspaper, “Until now, these new species have gone unnoticed because they’re small and brown and look similar to other frogs. These frogs live in the dark, humid leaf litter of the forests, which is like a secret world – we don’t know anything about what goes on there. We don’t understand their behaviour, how they socialise, or how they breed.” He also suggested that these frogs have an “utterly fascinating lifestyle”.

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