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How Small Can You Get? Another New-To-Science Flea-Toad Wows Scientists
The smallest vertebrates so far discovered are the flea-toads, which live at the limit for how small any vertebrate can possibly get.
Β© by GrrlScientist for Forbes | LinkTr.ee
Iβve shared news of several species of extremely tiny frogs and toads, commonly known as flea-toads or toadlets (read more here and here). These tiny amphibians are remarkable because they are much smaller than a human fingernail.
βThese are small toads with all the characteristics of large toads except for their size,β said LuΓs Felipe Toledo, who is the recently published studyβs corresponding author and a professor in the Biology Institute of the University of Campinas (IB-UNICAMP).
The most recently discovered flea-toad to be described was given the scientific name, Brachycephalus dacnis, in honor of Project Dacnis, a conservation, research and education NGO that maintains private areas of the Atlantic Rainforest, including the one in Ubatuba, on the coast of Brazilβs SΓ£o Paulo state, where a Project Dacnis team discovered a new flea-toad, which was classified into the genus, Brachycephalus.
βThis genus is different,β Professor Toledo explained. βDuring its evolution, it underwent what we biologists call βminiaturizationβ, which involves lossβ¦