Flea frog perching on 1 Brazilian Real (coin diameter is 27 mm)
Renato Gaiga
The tiny Brazilian frog, about the size of a pea, could threaten the current record holder for the world’s smallest vertebrate.
flea toad Brachycephalus purex (actually a species of frog) was first described by scientists in 2011. Shortly after, Mirco Sole of Brazil’s Santa Cruz State University wondered if this species might be the smallest amphibian ever discovered. But only a few specimens have been collected from the frog’s only known habitat, a forested hilltop in the southern Brazilian state of Bahia. Also, the necessary gonad tests to determine whether they were adults were not performed.
Solé and his colleagues measured the lengths of 46 flea toads, examined their gonads, and checked for the presence of throat clefts, which only males have, to determine the frogs’ maturity and gender.
adult B. Purex Males have an average body length of over 7 millimeters and are slightly smaller than females. Therefore, they are smaller than males. Phaedophryn amauensisa frog from Papua New Guinea that was previously considered both the smallest amphibian and the smallest vertebrate.
“It’s absolutely clear,” says Mark Schaerts of the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. “These may actually be the world’s smallest living frogs, which is amazing.”
It’s not just the average size that’s shocking, the smallest specimens in the study show just how small these flea frogs are compared to other minifrogs. “It’s 6.45 mm.” [long]That’s 30 percent smaller than any adult male frog I’ve ever seen,” Schertz said. “It’s almost a millimeter smaller than the next smallest frog.”
At such a small scale, frogs develop strange anatomical peculiarities, such as missing toes and underdeveloped ears that prevent them from hearing the songs of their own suitors. Some species have very weak balance organs and are barely able to jump.
But Solé says there may also be smaller vertebrates that have yet to be discovered. Perhaps the next record holder could be another small frog or a parasitic male deep-sea anglerfish.
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