The Smallest Vertebrate on Earth: Paedophryne amauensis

Paedophryne amauensis

The smallest vertebrate on Earth - a frog just a quarter of an inch long - has been discovered by scientists.

The tiny frog has been named Paedophryne amauensis after Amau Village in Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean where it was found.

Its adult body size ranges from just 7 to 8 mm - just over a quarter of an inch long.

Paedocypris progenetica

It has snatched the "world's smallest vertebrate" title from a fish called Paedocypris progenetica which measures 7.9 to 10.3 mm when fully grown.

The creature was identified along with another new and slightly larger frog of the same genus, Paedophryne swiftorum, which is between 8.3 and 8.9 mm.

Picture: NATIONAL PICTURES

Fungal Disease in Frogs causing electrolyte imbalance

The fungus now decimating frog populations around the world does its damage by impairing the animals' ability to absorb electrolytes through their skin. This discovery may eventually lead to treatments that make the disease less lethal.

Biologists now generally agree that the fungal disease known as chytridiomycosis is responsible for the worldwide die-off of frogs that has caused a conservation crisis in recent years. However, the fungus affects only the outer layers of the skin, leaving few clues to why it is so lethal.

But now Jamie Voyles of James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and colleagues have an answer. In diseased frogs, the skin's ability to take up sodium and potassium ions from the water decreases by more than 50 per cent, they found. As a result, the concentration of these two ions in the frogs' blood fell by 20 and 50 per cent, respectively. This ion loss – similar to the hyponatraemia that a human athlete might experience from drinking too much water too fast – eventually leads to cardiac arrest and death.

The researchers found they could delay death by giving diseased frogs an oral electrolyte-replacement solution – a sort of froggy Gatorade. Fungal damage to the skin was too extensive for this to prevent death altogether, the study represents a first step toward finding an effective treatment for the disease, Voyles says.

Intensive French Frog Farming further endangers Asian Frog species

Giant frog farms could satisfy western diners' apparently insatiable appetite for frog meat, if pioneering French research is put into practice.

That's not just good news for the Europe's menus, but also for Asia's frogs, which conservationists say are in danger of being eaten to extinction.

Farming would also mean frogs could be raised close to where they're eaten, which could reduce the spread of diseases that are threatening frog populations around the world. But some ecologists and conservationists say that intensive frog farming could spawn a new range of problems.

The vast majority of frogs destined for European dinner tables are harvested from the wild in Asia, because previous attempts to farm frogs closer to home have ended in failure.

Disease spreads easily between frogs kept in close quarters, and they prefer expensive live prey to cheap food pellets, so they're not easy to raise. Another problem is that frogs hibernate for relatively long periods in cool European climates. So farming has thus far proven uneconomic.

Now, however, André Neveu at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Rennes says he's managed to raise common European frogs under intensive farming conditions.