FROGS THAT DANCE!
Phylum: Chordata
Class : Amphibia
Order : Anura
Family : Micrixalidae
Genus : Micrixalus
Species: Micrixalus sairandhri
Scientists have discovered 14 new species of so-called dancing frogs in the jungle mountains of southern India, just in time, they fear, to watch them fade away. The frogs are popularly called as 'Pilingiriyan thavalakal' in Malayalam.
Only the males dance, it’s actually a unique breeding behavior called foot-flagging. They stretch, extend and whip their legs out to the side to draw the attention of females who might have trouble hearing mating croaks over the sound of water flowing through perennial hill streams.
They bigger the frog, the more they dance. They also use those leg extensions to smack away other males — an important feature considering the sex ratio for the amphibians is usually around 100 males to one female. They are found exclusively in the Western Ghats.
There are other dancing frogs in Central America and Southeast Asia, but the Indian family, Micrixalidae, evolved separately about 85 million years ago. The study brings the number of known Indian dancing frog species to 24. The listing of the new species is published in the Ceylon Journal of Science.
Original Paper: SD Biju, Sonali Garg, KV Gururaja, Yogesh Shouche, Sandeep A Walujkar. DNA barcoding reveals unprecedented diversity in Dancing Frogs of India (Micrixalidae, Micrixalus): a taxonomic revision with description of 14 new species. Ceylon Journal of Science (Bio. Sci.) 43(1): 2014
Link: http://www.academia.edu
Phylum: Chordata
Class : Amphibia
Order : Anura
Family : Micrixalidae
Genus : Micrixalus
Species: Micrixalus sairandhri
Scientists have discovered 14 new species of so-called dancing frogs in the jungle mountains of southern India, just in time, they fear, to watch them fade away. The frogs are popularly called as 'Pilingiriyan thavalakal' in Malayalam.
Only the males dance, it’s actually a unique breeding behavior called foot-flagging. They stretch, extend and whip their legs out to the side to draw the attention of females who might have trouble hearing mating croaks over the sound of water flowing through perennial hill streams.
They bigger the frog, the more they dance. They also use those leg extensions to smack away other males — an important feature considering the sex ratio for the amphibians is usually around 100 males to one female. They are found exclusively in the Western Ghats.
There are other dancing frogs in Central America and Southeast Asia, but the Indian family, Micrixalidae, evolved separately about 85 million years ago. The study brings the number of known Indian dancing frog species to 24. The listing of the new species is published in the Ceylon Journal of Science.
Original Paper: SD Biju, Sonali Garg, KV Gururaja, Yogesh Shouche, Sandeep A Walujkar. DNA barcoding reveals unprecedented diversity in Dancing Frogs of India (Micrixalidae, Micrixalus): a taxonomic revision with description of 14 new species. Ceylon Journal of Science (Bio. Sci.) 43(1): 2014
Link: http://www.academia.edu
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