A frog smaller than a pencil eraser has hopped into the document books because the one of many smallest vertebrates identified to science. Researchers formally described the species in late October 2024 after encountering it within the Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil’s São Paulo state.

At a size of 6.95 millimeters (0.27 inches), Brachycephalus dacnis has given scientists a brand new appreciation of simply how small vertebrates can get. The one identified frog smaller than this, present in February 2024 in northeastern Brazil, beats it by simply 0.5 mm (0.02 in) however struggles with stability.

Frogs within the tiny Brachycephalus genus are infamous for his or her clumsy landings, usually tumbling over or falling on their heads after leaping, as their vestibular methods had been compromised of their evolution to be small.

However the B. dacnis retained its interior ear construction, permitting it to listen to and leap fairly proficiently. Researchers discovered that it will possibly bounce a formidable 32 instances its personal dimension, with shocking grace.

“The dimensions makes this frog very particular,” Edelcio Muscat, one of many researchers who described B. dacnis and a coordinator at Projeto Dacnis, a conservation NGO working within the Atlantic Forest, advised Mongabay by cellphone. “The miniaturization course of hasn’t affected any of its organs or its skeleton.”

In 2016, Muscat was on a typical nighttime expedition rigorously turning over leaves on the forest ground when one of many frogs jumped out. Recordings of its croak, extra akin to a cricket’s chirp than a typical toad’s ribbit, would verify it was a singular species years later.

Brazil is house to the world’s largest variety of amphibian species, most of them within the Atlantic Forest, a biodiversity hotspot encompassing Brazil’s largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with dozens of species described yearly. Simply 13% of the unique Atlantic Forest stays.

“The invention of this species reveals how a lot we’ve misplaced with out even realizing it,” Adrian Garda, a herpetologist on the Federal College of Rio Grande do Norte, not concerned within the research, advised Mongabay by cellphone. “Proper earlier than our eyes, such a peculiar and very miniaturized vertebrate existed. What may we now have misplaced over the previous 40 to 80 years of industrialization?”

Worldwide, practically 41% of amphibian species are threatened with extinction, in contrast with 26.5% of mammals, 21.4% of reptiles and 12.9% of birds.

B. dacnis is speckled brown and white and has survived by mixing in and laying low. Its tiny dimension helps it keep away from predators, and the leaves of the forest ground present thermal consolation, which could assist shield it towards the brunt of local weather change, Muscat stated.

“The invention reveals us how a lot we have to protect the Atlantic Forest,” Muscat stated. “There are nonetheless species it helps that we now have not but discovered.”

Banner picture: A B. dacnis rests on a fingertip, courtesy of Lucas Machado Botelho.