New Species OF Frog With Warty Skin And Vivid Red Eyes Discovered In The African Rainforest

Carl Hutter quickly recognized the frog, which was about the size of a quarter, as a unique find. The warty skin and vivid crimson eyes were unlike anything he had ever seen in Madagascar's high-elevation forests.

The country is home to a wide range of amphibians, but the majority of new discoveries are so-called cryptic species, which have a similar look to frogs previously known to science. Using a technology called DNA barcoding, which analyzes tissue samples to establish methods of genetic markers, researchers have been able to recognize these new species based on their genetic differences. The discovery of a new frog species in an area that has already been extensively investigated, such as Madagascar's Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, is extremely rare.

In 2015, Hutter, a postdoctoral researcher at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and his colleagues discovered the frog in concern. According to a paper published this week in Zoosystematics and Evolution, the researchers termed it as 'Gephyromantis marokoroko.' The name was termed by keeping it in mind after its unique skin. In Malagasy, the species name signifies rough. Considering G. marokoroko has only been discovered in four sections of forest, some of which are threatened by slash-and-burn agriculture, Hutter believes it is likely an endangered species.

The amphibian also has a distinct call that consists of two to four pulses followed by a lengthy note that is barely audible even from a few meters distant. Because of the nocturnal frog's reclusive character, which appears to only emerge after heavy rains, it took multiple journeys across several years to gather enough specimens and recordings for the taxonomic classification.