Meet Noble's pygmy frog (Noblella pygmaea). This freshly discovered amphibian is now the smallest known frog in South America's Andes Mountains. In addition to living at extreme altitudes (above and beyond 10,000 feet, or 3,000 meters), this little frog has some impressive talents, such as laying massive eggs that skip the tadpole phase and hatch into mini versions of their petite parents.

More than 10 new frog species have been discovered in the cool cloud forests of Peru's Andes in the past two years. But researchers worry that they, along with amphibians worldwide, could fall prey to the deadly Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bb, which causes chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease that is threatening species from Australia to North America.  

View Slide Show of the Frogs

4 Comments

1. 1. dog1 06:41 PM 3/18/09

   thats a frog hes small and stuff

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2. 2. atarikg 08:14 PM 3/18/09

   How much they're small or cute, I still don't like them. They're muggy and sticky. But nice work Science World. Maybe it also contains some beneficial substances in its body so that scientists can discover new treatments for humans.

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3. 3. raseclamid 03:16 AM 3/20/09

   A healthy amphibian population is one of the key indicator of healthy environment.
   
   In my teen years (1967-1971) I happened to observe very tiny frogs ( less than a centimeter ) falling with rain from the sky in several occassions. Later on this phenomena disappeared. I do not know whether the climate have change or the frogs simply gone extinct. Any scientist knows that?
   It happened in Manila suburb.

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4. 4. Hrimpurstala 09:15 PM 3/22/09

   Fascinating

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