Frogs with horns and parachutes

Three previously undiscovered tree frog species have been found during an expedition in Papua New Guinea’s Western Province and Indonesia.

Paul Oliver, a herpetologist at the Queensland Museum and Griffith University in Australia, says the three new amphibians include litoria pinocchio and litoria vivissimia, which are visually similar, with a combined green, yellow and brown colour and a spiked horn protruding from their noses.

The third new species, litoria pterodactyla, is bright green and is known as the parachuting frog. It has significant webbing between its toes, allowing it to jump into the air and control its descent by spreading its fingers.

Oliver says there are different theories surrounding the function of the spiked nose of the first two frogs.

“As far as we can tell the nose spike in litoria pinocchio and litoria vivissimia is likely to be sexually dimorphic: in short, males have them and females do not. This indicates natural selection has acted on the sexes to have different appearances.”

Oliver hypothesises that a male frog with a longer nose may have a mating advantage.

PNG is home to an estimated six per cent of the world’s known frog species. It is described by conservation biologist Debbie Bower as a “safe haven” for amphibians due to the lack of the chytrid fungus, which is found in forests and causes skin disease in frogs. “This fungus has wiped out many species of frog in my home country of Australia – and elsewhere in the world. However, amazingly this fungus does not appear to have reached New Guinea,” she says. “New Guinea is a great place for frogs because it is really wet, which frogs love,” says Oliver. “And second, New Guinea is mountainous; many frogs have adapted to different temperatures and different elevations and then become isolated from each other and evolve into new species.”

New Guinea is a great place for frogs because it is really wet, which frogs love.