New Species of Frog is World's Smallest Vertebrate
Posted by DerekMead on Wednesday, Jan 11, 2012
It seems like biologists have been on a bit of a tear as of late, introducing new species left and right, but this frog takes the cake.
Let’s all say it together: Holy frog that thing is small.
The frog that’s now considered the world’s smallest vertebrate is named Paedophryne amauensis, paying homage to Amau Village in Papua New Guinea where the little guy was found. Taking credit for the discovery is a team of researchers led by Christopher Austin of Louisiana State University, who published their discovery in PLoS ONE.
Aside from being adorable, studying extremely small vertebrates offers fascinating insight into extreme physiology. As Austin put it, the tiny frog “is of considerable interest to biologists because little is understood about the functional constraints that come with extreme body size, whether large or small.” The massive range in body sizes of vertebrates, from this frog to a 100-foot blue whale, create a wealth of physiological problems and solutions that arise from the mathematical relationship between surface area and volume. Think of it this way: That little frog has a skeleton and a whole set of organs stuffed inside that tiny body, all of which can theoretically only get so small before they simply can’t function anymore.
Adult examples of P. amauensis range from 7.0 to 8.0 millimeters. The previous record holder for world’s smallest vertebrate was a fish, Paedocypris progenetica, which ranged from 7.9 to 10.3 millimeters as adults. Oh, and just because it’s fun to blow small things up to massive sizes, here’s a link to a super-sized photo.
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Writer, photographer, record collector and all around science nerd with a zoology background. Follow me @drderekmead.
