March 18, 2009 | 4 comments

Meet the Smallest Frog in the Andes

The tiny, dime-size hopper lives in Peru's damp cloud forests

By Katherine Harmon

ALESSANDRO CATENAZZI/UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY

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Slide Show: Smallest Frog of the Andes

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.

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