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posted by martyb on Thursday March 28 2019, @11:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the Mini-mum,-Mini-scule,-and-Mini-ature dept.

Mark D. Scherz, a Ph.D. candidate at Germany’s Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich is the lead author of a study that has described five new species of frogs on Madagascar, three of which are classified as belonging to a new genus 'Mini'

The five new species range in size from 8 to 15 mm (.31 to .59 inches), allowing all of them to easily rest on your fingernail. Notably, you could line ~11,250 of them up diagonally on a standard 30x60 meter Ice Hockey rink.

o - Mini mum is from Manombo in eastern Madagascar.
        It is one of the smallest frogs in the world, reaching an adult body size of 9.7 mm in males and 11.3 mm in females.
        It could sit on a thumbtack.
o - Mini scule from Sainte Luce in southeastern Madagascar is slightly larger and has teeth in its upper jaw.
o - Mini ature from Andohahela in southeast Madagascar is larger than its relatives but is similar in build.

The two other new (also very small) species described were

o - Rhombophryne proportionalis from Tsaratanana in northern Madagascar is unique among Madagascar's miniaturised frogs
        because it's a proportional dwarf, meaning it has the proportions of a large frog, but is only about 12 mm long.
        This is very unusual among tiny frogs, which usually have large eyes,
        big heads, and other characters that are "baby-like"; so-called "paedomorphisms."
o - Anodonthyla eximia from Ranomafana in eastern Madagascar is distinctly smaller than any other Anodonthyla species.
        It lives on the ground, providing evidence that miniaturisation and terrestriality may have an evolutionary link.
        Maybe getting really small makes it hard to stay up in the trees.

Additional coverage here and here. Publication date was March 27, I suspect they rushed to make sure this did not come out on April 1st.


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  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday March 29 2019, @12:46AM (2 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Friday March 29 2019, @12:46AM (#821598) Homepage Journal

    But, 5 frogs on one of my fingernails, that's incredible!

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  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Friday March 29 2019, @12:57AM

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 29 2019, @12:57AM (#821604) Journal

    I heard you had the foresight to start strengthening the infrastructure against Extremely Miniscule Phrogs (EMPs).

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Friday March 29 2019, @03:54AM

    by driverless (4770) on Friday March 29 2019, @03:54AM (#821656)

    Mini mum is from Manombo in eastern Madagascar.

    The report forgot to mention that she's the mum of Mini me, and married to Mini dad.