Israel painted frog

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Israel Painted Frog

Extinct (1950s)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Discoglossidae
Genus:	Discoglossus
Species:	D. nigriventer

Binomial name

Discoglossus nigriventer
Mendelssohn & Steinitz, 1943

The Israel painted frog, Palestinian painted frog or Hula Painted Frog (Discoglossus nigriventer) is an extinct amphibian, whose range was limited to the Lake Huleh marshes in Israel and adjacent Syria. Due to drainage of the marshes in the 1950s, this rare species disappeared.

This species had a dark belly with small white spots. It is colored ochre above and rusty colour grading into dark olive-grey to greyish-black on the sides. It furthermore differs from the common painted frog (Discoglossus pictus) by its greater interocular distance, longer forelimbs, and a less projecting snout. The type specimen was an adult female with a body length of 4 cm.

Almost nothing is known about its life history, because it was only found twice by scientists: in 1940, two adults and 2 tadpoles were collected, and a single specimen was found in 1955. This was the last record of this species.

The 4 1940 specimens were to be used as types, but the smaller, half-grown frog was eaten by the larger one in captivity (Mendelssohn & Steinitz 1943). The latter eventually became the holotype (HUJZ Amphib. Discogl. 1) for the species' description and this or the individual collected in 1955 apparently is the only material remains of the species known today; the two tadpole paratypes (HUJZ Amphib. Discogl. 2 and 2a) appear to have been lost^{[citation needed]}.

It was originally referred to as "Palestinian" painted frog, as the state of Israel did not exist at the time of the species' description. Nowadays, with the definition of "Palestine" having changed, it is known as "Israel" or "Hula" painted frog.

This species is classified as extinct by the IUCN since 1996, but continues to be listed as an endangered species in Israel on the slim hope that a relict population may be found in the Golan Heights.

In 2000 a scientist of the Lebanese nature protection organisation A Rocha claimed he had seen a frog species which could be Discoglossus nigriventer in the Aammiq marshes south of the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. Two French-Lebanese-British expeditions in the years 2004 and 2005 brought no confirmation of the further existence of this species (Tron 2005).

[edit] See also

List of extinct animals of Asia

[edit] References

Khalaf-von Jaffa, Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher (2007). The Extinction of the Palestinian or Hula Painted Frog (Discoglossus nigriventer, Mendelssohn and Steinitz 1943): The Result of Israeli Drainage of the Lake Hula.Gazelle: The Palestinian Biological Bulletin. Number 62, February 2007. pp. 1-8.

Khalaf-von Jaffa, Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher (2007). The Palestinian Frogs and Toads.Gazelle: The Palestinian Biological Bulletin. Number 62, February 2007. pp. 9.

Khalaf-von Jaffa, Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher (2007). Das Aussterben der Palästinensischer Scheibenzüngler oder Hulesee-Scheibenzüngler (Discoglossus nigriventer, Mendelssohn und Steinitz 1943): Das Resultat der Israelischen Trockenlegung des Hulesees.Gazelle: The Palestinian Biological Bulletin. Number 63, March 2007. pp. 1-7. (Article in German, References in English).

Mendelssohn, Heinrich & Steinitz, Heinz (1943): A new frog from Palestine. Copeia 1943(4): 231-233. DOI:10.2307/1438135 (First page image)

Papenfuss, T.; Disi, A.; Anderson, S.; Kuzmin, S.; Gasith, A. & GAACT (2004). Discoglossus nigriventer. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and a brief justification of why this species is listed as extinct

Paz, U. (1975): [The Rehabilitation of the Hula Nature Reserve]. Nature Conservation in Israel: Research & Surveys 1: 116-206 [Article in Hebrew].

Steinitz, Heinz (1955): Occurrence of Discoglossus nigriventer in Israel. Bulletin of the Research Council of Israel B 5: 192-193.

Tron, François (2005): The Eastern spadefoot Toad (Pelobates syriacus): A new amphibian species for Lebanon. The international expedition of herpetological research in South Lebanon, April 2005. PDF fulltext