Pale gold coloured frog: new species discovered in Columbia

 

According to Andrew Crawford from the Smithonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, researchers have discovered a new species of pale-gold coloured frog in the high Andes in Columbia in the midst of cloud forests.

Its name, Pristimantis Dorado, which means golden in Spanish and El Dorado is a mystical city of gold eagerly sought for centuries by Spanish colonists in South America.

Little did the Spanish knew about Columbia’s biodiversity. The new species was found croaking from the bushes on the 8, 700 feet elevation near Chingaza National Park, 10miles form East Bogota, Columbia’s capital and largest city.

With this new species, Columbia now hosts more than 800 species of amphibians second only to Brazil in total diversity.

Its discovery in the metropolitan area of nearly 10 million people illustrates how much of the earth’s biodiversity remains to be discovered.

The findings published in the Journal Amphibia-Reptilia, describes the extraordinary diverse group to which the new species belongs, Pristimantis which includes 465 recoganised species, 205 of them from Colombia alone.

The frog is seven-tenths of an inch long, and is among the smaller species in the group. The largest species are two inches in length when fully grown. Male frog advertise for females with distinctive calls produced by vocal sacs or vocal slits. Although the new species of frog discovered lacks these ability the males can still create croaking calls consisting of an irregularly pulsed series of clicks according the research study.