New Frog Found 'Has "Striking" Color Change'

[Frog News]

National Geographic News (Washington DC, USA) March 10th, 2010 06:20 PM: New Frog Found 'Has "Striking" Color Change'

A newfound frog species undergoes a "striking" change from a black, yellow-spotted youngster to a peach-colored, blue-eyed adult, scientists say.

Oreophryne ezra was discovered in 2004 in a tiny, mountaintop cloud forest in southeastern Papua New Guinea. The forest has been long avoided by locals, who believe the misty jungle to be taboo, and perhaps guarded by spirits.

Though a few other frogs are known to switch colors as they mature, "I don't think the difference in color pattern is as startling as what's seen in this species," said Fred Kraus, a vertebrate zoologist at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii.

But why the amphibian undergoes such a drastic transition is far from black and white, added Kraus, leader of a new study on the frog in the December 2009 issue of the journal Copeia.

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