Extraordinary treefrog discovered in the Andes of Ecuador

A new treefrog species was discovered during a two-week expedition to a remote tabletop mountain at Cordillera del Cóndor, a largely unexplored range in the eastern Andes.

"To reach the tabletop, we walked two days along a steep terrain. Then, between sweat and exhaustion, we arrived to the tabletop where we found a dwarf forest. The rivers had blackwater and the frogs were sitting along them, on branches of brown shrubs similar in color to the frogs' own. The frogs were difficult to find, because they blended with their background," Alex Achig, one of the field biologists who discovered the new species comments on the hardships of the expedition.

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Credit: Gustavo Pazmiño, BIOWEB Ecuador

An adult of the recently discovered species Hyloscirtus hillisi.

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Credit: Gustavo Pazmiño, BIOWEB Ecuador

Unlike other frogs, the new species has a claw at the base of the thumb. The function of this unusual structure is still unknown.

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New Species of Frog Discovered With Weird Claw Thumb

A University of Michigan ecologist and his colleagues have discovered three more frog species in the Peruvian Andes, raising to five the total number of new frog species the group has found in a remote protected forest since 2012.

The three newly found species live in the mountain forests and Andean grasslands of the Pui Pui Protected Forest in central Peru.

All three species measure an inch or less in length.

Absolutely gorgeous! love the golden speckles on them

I wonder about the claw on the thumb, maybe just for helping with extra grip. It's a shame they are threatened with extinction though. It's crazy how many species we're losing...