Purple Frog

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iPurple Frog

EN^[1]

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Sooglossidae
Genus:	Nasikabatrachus Biju & Bossuyt, 2003
Species:	N. sahyadrensis

Binomial name

Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis
Biju & Bossuyt, 2003

Distribution of Nasikabatrachus (in black)

Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis is a frog species from the Western Ghats, India. It was discovered in October 2003 and forms its own family, marking the first discovery of a new frog family since 1926. Common names for this species are Purple Frog or Pignose Frog.

The scientific name derives from the Sanskrit word nasika (nose) referring to the pointed snout, batrachus Greek for frog, and Sahyadri as the local name of the mountain range where it was found - the Western Ghats.

The frog spends most of the year underground, surfacing only for about two weeks, during the monsoon, for purposes of mating. The frog's reclusive lifestyle is what caused the species to escape earlier notice by biologists. The frog is dark purple in color, seven centimeters in length, and has a small head and a pointy snout.

The species was discovered by Franky Bossuyt from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels) and S.D. Biju from the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Palode, India. However it was well known to the local people before.

The frog forms a living fossil and was initially assigned to a new family of its own, Nasikabatrachidae, but has been more recently assigned to the family Sooglossidae^[2] which is found on the Seychelles islands. The origin of the disjunct distribution goes back to about 100 million years ago, during which time India, the Seychelles and Madagascar formed a single landmass which split due to the continental drift.

[edit] References

^ Biju (2004). Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is endangered
^ Frost, Darrel R. 2006. Amphibian Species of the World: an online reference. Version 4.0 (17 August 2006). Electronic Database accessible at http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.php. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA.