The other two examples are rainforest-dwelling South-American frogs where the father carries the tadpoles to water, where they develop unsupported.Īssa’s habitat is often steep, so while the environment is wet enough not to desiccate the eggs, there are few standing bodies of water. “Only four of the 4,000 species worldwide have male parental care where the male carries its developing tadpoles ,” Mahony said in a statement. In a world where many male animals provide no parental care at all, and those that do usually share it with the females, Mahony said “It’s not easy to see” how this arose. Mahony told IFLScience it was surprising that frogs at some of the more distantly scattered sites remained genetically quite similar, while those at Wollumbin were different enough to deserve a new name. They took DNA samples from frogs at each location and tested for differences. darlingtoni’s known habitats, Mahony and co-authors thought they might have been separated long enough to divide into separate species. However, with hundreds of kilometers of hot dry valleys separating A. The two frogs, both 16mm (0.6 inches) long, look so similar even herpetologists can’t tell them apart.
Those at other locations keep the name Assa darlingtoni. The discovery was reported in Zootaxa, where the new species is called Assa wollumbin. However, Professor Michael Mahony of Newcastle University led a team examining its DNA, and found the frogs living on Wollumbin (Mt Warning) are a separate species from those at the other five known locations. The frog has been scientifically described since 1933, presumably known to the Indigenous people of the area thousands of years longer.
0 kommentar(er)
