A new pumpkin toadlet species was recently discovered in the mountains of southern Brazil. Bracycephalus lulai is just over one centimeter (only 0.39 inches) long and the size of a pencil tip. It’s a completely new species of frog, and detailed in a study published this week in the journal PLOS One.
“This new species is unique due to a combination of many characteristics,” Marcos R. Bornschein, a study co-author biologist at the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) in São Paulo, Brazil, tells Popular Science. “But it stands out because of its orange coloration and particular features of its advertisement call, including the presence of four pulses per note.”
In fact, that unique advertising call (when animals send out some kind of sound to find a mater or announce their presence) is what led Bornschein and the team to this discovery. They used several tools and techniques including CT scans and DNA analysis to be sure that this tiny orange frog was distinct from its relatives in the genus Bracycephalus. There are 22 known Bracycephalus species, and Bracycephalus lulai is most closely related to two species that live in southern Brazil’s Serra do Quiriri mountain range. Its species name lulai honors Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
These tiny amphibians boast a bright orange body with green and brown freckles. The males are 8.9 and 11.3 millimeters and females are between 11.7 and 13.4 millimeters. According to the team, they are among the smallest four-legged animals on the planet. Fortunately, these tiny frogs are well protected in their habitat, where they live among the leaf litter.
“The new species occurs in highly preserved forests that are very difficult to access, which means it is not threatened with extinction,” says Bornschein. “It is one of the few Brachycephalus species that are not threatened, which is very reassuring for us.”
Even with their non-threatened status, the team is still calling for immediate conservation efforts to protect this frog and its relatives. Amphibians are among the most threatened group of animals due to habitat loss and the greater effects of climate change.Â
For Bornschein, the discovery highlights the incredible biodiversity of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. He discovered the first Brachycephalus species as a student in southern Brazil in 1988. Since then, 22 species in this genus have been found in the region.
“That’s roughly one new species every year and a half,” Bornschein says. “It is a great privilege to see how much science has advanced from a modest initial discovery, but we should not assume that all discoveries have already been made. I believe that as many as eight to 10 new species of these remarkable toadlets may still be described in southern Brazil over the next 10 to 15 years.”
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