New species of Frog with thick granular skin discovered in Peruvian Amazon jungle

The state service for natural protected areas on Monday, April 12 revealed that a new species of marsupial frog has been discovered in the Cordillera Colán National Sanctuary in Peru's Amazon jungle and has been considered as an important discovery in Science. As per an official press release, an agency attached to the Ministry of the Environment (Minam), this discovery was made as part of a research study developed in the mountainous and humid forest of the Colán Mountain Range, between 3136 and 3179 meters above sea level. Termed as  Gastrotheca gemma sp. Nov, the new species is a part of the Gastrotheca genus, anuran amphibians, which is found in Central and South America.

As per the press release, the study has been authored by Pablo Venegas, Luis García-Ayachi, Lourdes Echevarría, Daniel Paluh, Juan Chávez-Arribasplata, Axel Marchelie and Alessandro Catenazzi, who are researchers from the Peruvian Institute of Herpetology, the Center for Ornithology and Biodiversity (CORBIDI), the Pontifical University Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, the Museum of Natural History of the University of Florida and the Department of Biological Sciences of the Florida International University. The recently discovered species has been differentiated from its congeners as it has a thick granular skin on the back, a green dorsal coloration without a pattern, turquoise irises and a belly without spots. As per the Peruan authorities, the area is of great biological importance as several unique species live there.

(Image Credits: Gob.pe)

Dual-coloured species of bat discovered 

In another significant development worth mentioning, earlier, a new species of bat has been discovered in Western Africa during conservation efforts. While bats have particularly come under scrutiny during the coronavirus pandemic, the discovery has set a celebratory mood amongst the biologists and conservationists. The discovery came into light after the American Museum of Natural History shared an image of the dual coloured mammal on Twitter.

The newly discovered species has been named Myotis nimbaensis and the nomenclature is in honour of the Guinea mountain range's habitat. As per the museum, the dual-coloured bat features orange and black colours. The mammal is native of the Nimba Mountains in West Africa, where it was discovered.

(Image Credits: RepresentativeImage/Unsplash)