This newly discovered poison frog may represent an evolutionary step on the pathway towards developing brilliant warning coloration associated with other poison dart frogs.A small reddish-brown frog roughly 2/3rds of an inch long is the latest species new-to-science that ... [+] has been described and named. (Credit: Juan Camilo Rios Orjuela)Juan Camilo Rios OrjuelaScientists recently described and named a frog species that is new to science. This new frog lives in dry and humid tropical forests from sea level to 1800m elevation across the Pacific lowlands and foothills of the western side of the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru (ref). Although the new frogs range (Figure 1) includes areas of severe deforestation, it was surprisingly abundant.Figure 1: Map of research area. The southern half of the Pacific lowlands of Colombia, part of the ... [+] Choc biogeographical region, hosts at least three species of Epipedobates.doi:10.3897/zookeys.1226.123803We observed individuals actively moving among the grass and leaf litter, or actively calling at the edges of water bodies, said the studys senior author, herpetologist Rebecca Tarvin, an assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where she integrates studies of natural history with genomics and phylogenetics, especially in poison dart frogs.The frogs were easy to find and collect because they live on the ground and are active during the day, are plentiful along roadsides and the edges of young forests, where they mainly live close to marshes and slow-flowing streams and are even found in semiurban areas.MORE FOR YOUThe (place where the primary specimen was found) includes tiny forest fragments among human dwellings, Professor Tarvin reported. Usually, these areas are contaminated with garbage or agricultural residues.The frogs are small, roughly 0.7 inches long, and therefore, are easy to overlook. Previously, this frog had been confused with another local species of frog in the same genus, Epipedobates, but this new species has a yellow-orange blotch on the side of its body whereas this stripe is white-yellow on other frog relatives.In addition to its unique coloring, this frogs mating calls are what really set it apart.We find that the advertisement call of (the new species) is unique compared to other Epipedobates distributed in Colombia, write to the studys authors. The frog, which is especially vocal in the morning and late afternoon, makes a single call whilst others in the area are known for producing a series of calls consisting of up to three notes.Professor Tarvin originally came across this frog species eight years ago when, as a graduate student studying toxins in the skins of poisonous frogs, she and a collaborator, who is this studys lead author, behavioral ecologist Mileidy Betancourth-Cundar, collected a frog in Colombia that they suspected was a new species. Dr Betancourth-Cundar is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, where she is especially interested in the evolutionary dynamics of territorial behavior and mating systems in Neotropical Poison Frogs.Now, eight years later, Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators returned to Colombia to find and collect more of these tiny frogs to confirm their original suspicions about its species status. To do this, the researchers collected a holotype specimen that is used to describe the species for the scientific literature, and is then housed in the reference collections of a natural history museum.If you want to refer to a species, you have to go through this process of assigning, basically describing. How do you tell them apart from other species, and what sort of attributes make them unique? Professor Tarvin said. Thats what we did. Its actually a lot of work to do that. It took us about four years to do the description.As part of the process of describing a new species, Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators must also give it a scientific and common name. After hearing a recording of local marimba bands, one musical style, known as currulao, caught everyones attention.We ended up going with currulao because we liked how it brought in the human perspective, Professor Tarvin said in a statement.Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators wrote in their report that currulao is a type of musical genre found on the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador. Currulao is based in Afro-Colombian culture that originated when African slaves were brought to Colombia to work in gold mines and it was later part of a land rights movement in 1993.We named this species in honor of, and as an homage to, this musical genre that represents the culture of the southern Colombian Pacific because: la msica, como la vida, no se pueden dejar perder, which translates to music, like life, cannot be allowed to be lost, Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators wrote in their report.The frog is part of the sound landscape; when they call, its part of the background noise in the region, Professor Tarvin said. Similarly, currulao is more than just a genre of music. Its also the cultural practices around the music, the gathering, dancing and the relationship-forming aspects of the experience.And so Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators named their new frog, Epipedobates currulao, or the Currulao Nurse Frog.Currently, Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators are continuing their investigations of the phylogeny of the genus Epipedobates (Figure 2).Figure 2. Phylogenetic position and genetic distances of E. currulao sp. nov. and other species of ... [+] Epipedobates.doi:10.3897/zookeys.1226.123803Their recent assessment of the genetic and phenotypic diversity of the Epipedobates species reveals a small group of eight or nine frogs with very similar appearances but with their own distinct evolutionary lineages in other words, cryptic species (ref). In view of this finding, its hardly surprising that a number of previous studies failed to resolve some species relationships in Epipedobates. Additionally, Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators phylogenetic studies find that the genus, Epipedobates, is the most recently evolved group of poisonous frogs in South America and that all of the Epipedobates frogs acquired their chemical defenses more recently than any other group in the poison frog family.Which came first: bright warning colors or toxic poisons?Using comparative genetic studies with other poison frog groups, Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators hope to understand how poison frogs chemical defenses evolved. In contrast to most poisonous animals, which advertise their toxicity to would-be predators with bright colors, the Epipedobates frogs are more subtly colored. This observation raises the question: which came first: bright warning colors or toxic poisons? This question has been explored in detail before, and the authors of that study concluded there is an evolutionary transition period where a cryptic animal conceals its bright coloration in body parts such as the limbs or the underbelly (more here).What makes poison frogs poisonous?Whats unique about poison frogs, specifically, is that they sequester toxins from their food, so its an entirely different kind of defense that requires an entirely different physiology, compared to venom-producing animals, like snakes and bees, said Professor Tarvin.Poison frogs eat arthropods that have small amounts of chemicals that can be either toxic or distasteful. And then they accumulate those to levels that become relevant for their own predators.Several things about this frog discovery stand out for me, and are amongst the reasons I shared this study with you. First, its a wonderful example of evolution in action, where we can actually see with our own eyes a group of frogs that are apparently transitioning into poisonous frogs with brilliant warning coloration, as predicted by a previous study that I shared with you (more here).Second, this discovery demonstrates how little we really know about the planet and its residents even species that live in our own neighborhoods and that advertise their presence with their own distinctive songs.Third, this frogs toxins may prove helpful to human medicine in the future by, for example, providing a painkiller that lacks some of morphines more dangerous side-effects.Nevertheless, despite this frogs seeming abundance, this situation can rapidly change, so Professor Tarvin, Dr Betancourth-Cundar and collaborators suggest that the species be listed as near threatened because of the many environmental stressors facing them, ranging from construction and garbage to forest fragmentation and loss of habitat as well as infection by the deadly chytrid fungi (more here).Source:Mileidy Betancourth-Cundar, Juan Camilo Ros-Orjuela, Andrew J. Crawford, David C. Cannatella, and Rebecca D. Tarvin (2025). Honoring the Afro-Colombian musical culture with the naming of Epipedobatescurrulao sp. nov. (Anura, Dendrobatidae), a frog from the Pacific rainforests, ZooKeys 1226:139-170 | doi:10.3897/zookeys.1226.123803 Copyright by GrrlScientist | hosted by Forbes | LinkTr.ee