A new species, this as yet unnamed rain frog looks toward an uncertain future.
The frog is one of 30 unknown species found in Ecuador's highland forests by a team of U.S. and Ecuadorian researchers, the nonprofit, Arizona-based Reptile & Amphibian Ecology International announced January 14, 2010. As Central and South America’s increasingly isolated "islands" of mountaintop forest fall to the ax, and heat up with global warming, scientists fear many such species will be lost before we ever knew they existed, the organization says.
A new species, this as yet unnamed rain frog looks toward an uncertain future.
Slug-Sucking Snake
Just 20 minutes of nighttime searching in a rare patch of coastal dry forest in Ecuador enabled scientists to spot this new species of snake—on a branch just above biologist Paul Hamilton’s head.
The slug-sucking snake is one of a small group that feasts on gastropods such as slugs and snails. Not only is the snake an unknown species, but its closest relative lives almost 350 miles (560 kilometers) away in Peru.
Slug-Sucking Snake
Tree Frog With Red Iris
A new species, announced January 2010, of rain frog crouches on a leaf in its forest home in Ecuador.
The frogs' lifestyle is so thoroughly arboreal that, instead of laying eggs in water, the frogs deposit their eggs in trees. And instead of hatching as tadpoles, the offspring emerge as miniature versions of their parents—some not much larger than pinheads.
Tree Frog With Red Iris
New Species of Stick Insect
The RAEI team uncovered four intriguing stick-insect species—including the above animal—which boast some of the animal kingdom’s best camouflage.
Scientists searching for reptiles and amphibians captured the photogenic insects on film—and later were surprised to learn they'd discovered four new species of the genus Xylospinodes.
New Species of Stick Insect.
Scaly-Eyed Gecko
The scaly-eyed gecko (Lepidoblepharis buchwaldi)—also a new species—can perch comfortably atop a pencil eraser, even as an adult.
"They crawl around in leaf litter on the forest floor, and they are so small they are very hard to find," biologist Hamilton explained. "All of these things take a lot of time to find, and if we don't get to work and put in a lot of hours we're going to miss ever seeing a lot of these little things."
The scaly-eyed gecko (Lepidoblepharis buchwaldi)—also a new species—can perch comfortably atop a pencil eraser, even as an adult.
Lungless Salamander
Like nearly half of the new species announced by RAEI in January 2010, the salamander—which is not a new species—dwells on Cerro Pata de Pájaro. The cloud forest-capped mountain straddles the Equator six miles (ten kilometers) from the Pacific Ocean.
The few square miles of forest here are home to 14 new species found nowhere else.
This lungless salamander, which breathes through its skin, is one of three similar species RAEI scientists spotted in Ecuadorian forests.
Heart of Glass
This so-called glass frog's transparent body lacks pigmentation and reveals its organs in action—including a beating heart.
More than 150 species of glass frogs are found in rain forest trees across Central and South America, RAEI says (pictures of tropical rain forests). But many are feeling pressures like those that threaten their frog relatives worldwide.
This so-called glass frog's transparent body lacks pigmentation and reveals its organs in action—including a beating heart.
Dwarf Iguana
A male O'Shaughnessy's Dwarf Iguana (Enyalioides oshaughnessyi) can cut an imposing figure. But the animal may be helpless in the face of threats to its cloud forest home, RAEI says.
Cerro Pata de Pájaro is being deforested on all sides for the expansion of cattle grazing, RAEI says. Climate change may also heat up—and dry up—cloud forests, which could leave animals unable to adapt with nowhere to go.
A male O'Shaughnessy's Dwarf Iguana (Enyalioides oshaughnessyi) can cut an imposing figure. But the animal may be helpless in the face of threats to its cloud forest home, RAEI says.
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