Two New Poison Dart Frogs Discovered
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 21st, 2007
Two new species of frog, both so-called poison dart frogs because they are the colorful variety possessing toxics used by native peoples on the arrows of their darts, have been located in Colombia. Specifically, they were found in the Central Cordillera of Colombia by Alonso Quevedo from ProAves and Oscar Gallego from Tolima University.
The frogs, just formally announced, were first discovered in July, 2006, when the research team was looking for endangered bird species in the Central Mountain Range.
The new frogs have been given the names Ranitomeya tolimense and Ranitomeya doriswansoni.
Ranitomeya doriswansoni is black and red.
Ranitomeya tolimense is mostly yellow and has a short fifth toe.
The article announcing their discovery was published on November 14, 2007 by Zootaxa Magazine and summarized in the English magazine, Wildlife Extra, in December.
Source: Wildlife Extra, “Two New Species of Poison Dart Frogs Discovered in Colombia,” December 2007.
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- Similar Phenomena:
CUUUUUTE as heck!!!
And SO deadly.
Great article, Loren!!!
nice to hear something good coming from back home
ALL HAIL HYPNOTOAD.
I get really excited with these new frog discoveries, because as I’ve said before, these creatures tend to be particularly sensitive to pollution and fluctuations in the environment and can be sort of the coal miner’s canary in a cage for signaling impending ecological problems within the habitat. The condition of frog species in a given area can be a good indicator of the health of the ecosystem and so finding new species of frog is encouraging to me as it shows we have not managed to befoul every wild corner of our planet yet.