Long Thought To Be Extinct, Bizarre Tree Frog Surfaces In India

A group of tree frog species scientists thought had gone extinct has turned out to be rather abundant in India and elsewhere in Asia.

Prior to 2007, the only documented specimens were the two caught in the forests of Darjeeling in 1870 by British naturalist TC Jerdon.

The discovery was made by renowned Indian biologist Sathyabhama Das Biju and a team of scientists, in the jungles of north-eastern India.

“We heard a full musical orchestra coming from the treetops”, he said. “Taking any conservation effort for amphibians will indirectly conserve several other life forms of that area”, said Biju. “Of course we had to investigate”.

The females demonstrate unusual behavior in laying fertilized eggs in water-filled tree holes and returning to feed the tadpoles with unfertilized eggs. Tadpoles eat their mother’s eggs for sustenance, a common practice among frogs that live in low-resource environments. “It’s very clear that they are feeding purely on their mother’s eggs”, Biju told National Geographic. The 137-year-old specimens belong to a newly named genus called Frankixalus, and have been renamed Frankixalus jerdonii.

Biju believes the frogs remained hidden from science so long due to their secretive lifestyle living in tree holes at heights up to 6 meters (20 feet) above ground. The species was originally named Polypedates jerdonii after its discoverer, the British zoologist Thomas Jerdon, but according to the new study published in PLOS ONE, the frog is actually part of a whole new genus, with this particular species renamed Frankixalus jerdonii. Sushil Dutta, a veteran herpetologist and formerly with the Indian Institute of Science, and who read Mr. Biju’s research paper, described the study as a “rare and good find” but added that more molecular analysis was required to be convinced that the find was indeed a new genus.

But Biju – who earned his nickname “The Frog Man of India” for discovering 89 of the country’s 350 or so frog species – warns that Franky’s tree frog may already be in danger.

Industrial growth amid a decade-long economic boom has also increased pollution, to which frogs are particularly vulnerable. Already, Australia has seen the extinction of one frog species that brooded tadpoles in its stomach, while Central America recently lost its brightly colored golden toad.