This amazing new frog fully unveils its heart
Scientists found a new species of glass frogs and it’s truly amazing. The reptile has a unique transparent skin that runs from her chest to her belly, fully exposing its heart.
Scientists from the University of San Francisco de Quito, in Ecuador, detailed the finding of a new and marvellous type of glass frog. The new amphibian belongs to the Neotropical anurans and it has one difference that makes her a unique.
The new frog has different sound ranges than her cousins and also has a distinctive green spot on her head and back. But what is more amazing is that the transparent skin, common to all glass frogs, runs from her chest all the way to her belly, fully exposing her heart.
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“It is differentiated from all other congenerics by having small, middorsal, dark green spots on the head and dorsum, a transparent pericardium,” the scientists wrote in their paper published in the ZooKeys journal.
The new frog is named Hyalinobatrachium yaku, with the species name, yaku, meaning “water” in the local language. The scientists selected the name as the slow-flowing streams in the region are crucial for the reproduction of known glass frogs. The suggested English name is Yaku Glassfrog.
Using DNA testing and sound recognition technology, researchers were able to identify several populations of the new frogs, with notable differences between them when it comes to mating behaviour. One population was spotted near Kallana while another was identified in the forest near the Ecuadorian village of Ahuano. A third population was found in San José de Payamino.
Given the large area where the frogs were found, scientists believe that the strange amphibians could also be found as far as Peru.
But there are considerable difficulties in setting up the distribution range, scientists say, as one of the main problems is given by their considerable small size. The species is just 2 cm in length, which makes them hard to find in forest and stream locations. And according to Eureka Alerts, even if specimens of the species have been previously collected, they would be almost impossible to identify from the museum collection, as many of the characteristic traits, such as the dark green marks, are getting lost after preservation.
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