Home > Purple Frog
Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis is a frog species from the hills in the west of India. It was discovered in 2003 and forms its own family, marking the first discovery of a new frog family since 1926. Common names for this species are Purple Frog or Pignose Frog.
The scientific name derives from the Sanskrit word nasika (nose) referring to the pointed snout, batrachus Greek for frog, and Sahyadri as the local name of the mountain range where it was found -- these hills in the state of Maharashtra are commonly known as the Western Ghats.
The frog spends most of the year underground, and only surfaces for about two weeks during the monsoon for mating. This seclusive lifestyle made it escape biologists until now. The frog is dark purple in color, seven centimeters in length, and has a small head and a pointy snout.
The species was discovered by Franky Bossuyt from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels) and S.D. Biju from the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Palode , India. However it was well known to the local people before.
The frog forms a living fossilLiving fossil is a term used for any living species which closely resembles a species otherwise only known from fossils, i. as if the fossil had "come to life". This can be a species known from fossils before living representatives were discovered (the mo as the only surviving species of the Nasikabatrachidae family. According to genetic analysis it is distantly related to the family Sooglossidae , which is found on the SeychellesThe Republic of Seychelles ( Creole: Repiblik Sesel is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, some 1,600 km east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar. Other nearby island countries and territories include Mauritius and Reunion to the s islands. The two families split about 100 million years ago, which fits with the geologic history of India. At that time India, the Seychelles and MadagascarSee also Madagascar (movie) Madagascar is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, off the eastern coast of Africa. Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world. It is the home of five percent of the world's plant and animal species, 80 per cent of them formed a single landmass which split due to the continental drift20th century. Plate tectonics (from the Greek word for "one who constructs", τεκτων tekton ) is a theory of geology developed to explain the phenomenon of continental drift. In the theory of plate tectonics the outermost par.
References and external links
- NatureNature is one of the oldest and most reputable general-purpose scientific journals, first published on November 4, 1869. Although most scientific journals are now highly specialized, Nature still publishes articles across a wide range of scientific fields 425, 711 - 714 (16 October 2003) - Abstract
- BBC News article
Frogs
