A new species of leopard frog was discovered in New York City and the surrounding regions.
The new species was discovered in an NYC metropolitan area, PLOS reported. To make their findings researchers looked at acoustic and genetic data to characterize the new leopard frog, dubbed Rana kauffeldi.
"The discovery of a new frog species from the urban Northeast is truly remarkable and completes a journey that began six years ago with a simple frog call in the wilds of New York City. This story underscores the synergy that traditional field methods and modern molecular and bioacoustic techniques can have when used together; one is really lost without the other, but together are very powerful tools," said Jeremy Feinberg from Rutgers University.
The species' range extends both north and south of NYC and reaches the coastal regions. It follows a "narrow and largely coastal lowland distribution from central Connecticut to northeastern North Carolina," PLOS reported.
The researchers believe the new species exists in primarily in open-canopied wetlands and spreads through upland patches. The newly-discovered frog may not be known for long, evidence suggests Rana kauffeldi is struggling with habitat loss that could threaten its existence.
The finding suggests new species can be discovered even in highly-documented areas and even metropolitan cities.
"This discovery is unexpected in one of the largest and most densely populated urban parts of the world. It also demonstrates that new vertebrate species can still be found periodically even in well-studied locales rarely associated with undocumented biodiversity," the researchers wrote in their study abstract.
The findings were published on Oct. 29, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE . Financial support for field work and analysis was primarily provided by a Rutgers Graduate School of New Brunswick Bevier Dissertation Fellowship and a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Conserve Wildlife Matching Grant to JAF.
