Researchers discovered a new species of dart frog with a unique call; researchers are concerned this newly discovered creature will be gone before we know it.
The little orange frog was spotted in the headwaters of the Rio Caño, in the district of Donoso, Colón Province, Panama, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute reported.
The new species was named Andinobates geminisae after Geminis Vargas, the supportive wife of researcher Marcos Ponce.
The first specimen was discovered in Feb. 21, 2011 by Samuel Valdés, who was then the MWH Global Inc. environment office director, and his field assistant, Carlos de la Cruz. Since then additional specimens have been found by the Rio Coclé del Norte and the Rio Belen by biologists Ponce and Abel Batista, then a student at the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí.
"Abel Batista and Marcos Ponce were the first to note the presence of this species," said Cesar Jaramillo, Smithsonian herpetologist. "They've known it was there for several years. However, they were not sure if it was only a variety of another poison dart frog species, Oophaga pumilio, which exhibits tremendous color variation. Based on morphological characteristics of the adult and the tadpole, I thought it might be a new species of Andinobates."
Andrew Crawford, professor at Universidad de Los Andes and former STRI postdoctoral fellow, worked to sequence the DNA of the specimen and found the orange frog was a new species of Andinobates.
The species only exists in a very small area, so habitat loss and pet trade could be a major threat to its existence. The authors recommend the implementation of safety plans to help with species conservation A. geminisae is included in the captive breeding program of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation project.
The species was described in this week's edition of the journal Zootaxa. Funding for DNA sequencing was provided by a CBOL grant to barcode the vertebrates of Panama.
