This Newly Discovered Frog Is the World's Smallest Vertebrate
Tiniest Vertebrate On Earth Paedophryne amauensis is the smallest vertebrate, discovered in a village in Papua New Guinea. Adults are just 7.0 to 8.0 millimeters. Click here to embiggen the photo. Rittmeyer EN, Allison A, Grundler MC, Thompson DK, Austin CC/PLoS ONE This little guy is officially the smallest vertebrate on the planet, averaging 7.7 millimeters in size, less than one-third of an inch. Named Paedophryne amauensis, the new species of frog was discovered in Papua New Guinea, where it lives in leaf detritus on the rainforest floor. The wee frog ousts a small Indonesian fish as the world's tiniest backboned creature. It was difficult to find partly because its high-pitched mating call sounds like that of an insect, according to the scientist who discovered it, Louisiana State University herpetologist Chris Austin. And also because it is really, really small. Listen to the frog's micropeeps: Along with its Lilliputian cuteness, the frog...