A new species of pale gold-colored frog has been discovered by a group of researchers in the forest of Andes in Columbia, as per a report dated March 19, 2016. These findings were published in the journal named ‘Amphibia-Reptilia’.
Named Pristimantis Dorado, it reflects both its color as well as El Dorado, a city of gold that South America’s Spanish conquistadors eagerly sought for centuries.
A researcher from Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Andrew Crawford stated that earlier it was assumed that gold was the actual wealth of Columbia, but not it is understood that the bio-diversity of the country reflects its real riches.
The researchers spotted this new species calling from bushes along the roadside around 8700 elevations near Chingaza National Park, which is nearly 10 miles east of Colombia’s capital, Bogota.
The discovery is very close to the metropolitan area which has almost 10 million inhabitants and illustrates the amount of biodiversity that remains to be discovered.
Crawford stated that this with this new species, around 800 species of amphibians is hosted, which ranks second among the total diversity of Brazil.
This extraordinary diverse group named Pristimantis, includes 465 recognized species, out of which 205 are from Colombia.
At 7/10th of an inch long, this new species is considered to be among the small species of the group; the large one being 2 inches long, as per the researchers.
Males of this frog species advertise for females having distinctive calls that are produced by vocal slits or vocal sacs.
Oddly, this new species doesn’t have these structures. However, males can still produce calls that consist of irregularly pulsed series of clicks, as per the study.
