I will, at some stage, stop posting about tiny critters. But not today. No, today we’re looking at this itty-bitty frog species, Amauensis, a part of the newly described genus Paedophryne. The average body size of the species is 7.7mm, which is about 60 per cent smaller than a five-cent coin.
Herptologist Chris Austin and colleagues from Louisiana State University located this micro-sized wonder in the depths of New Guinea. They weren’t armed with electron microscope goggles so, as you can imagine, this wasn’t the easiest frog to find. Fortunately, where eyes failed, ears prevailed; the males have a “high-pitched insect-like” mating call.
According to the Huffington Post, Paedophryne amauensis snatched the the throne of smallest vertebrate from a species of Indonesian fish, itself managing an average size of 8mm. Hopefully it wasn’t gunning for a permanent spot in the book of Guinness World Records.
Imagine if north-eastern Australia was troubled by these guys instead of cane toads? I don’t know if it’d be better or worse, but the situation would definitely, definitely be cuter.