Two New Frog Species are World’s Smallest

Two newly discovered frog species are smaller than a penny.

You won’t see many frogs of this size. That’s because they are rare and because they are tiny. Two newly discovered frog species are smaller than a penny. In fact, they are the smallest ever found and they live in Papua New Guinea, where they are easily missed at 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) in length. Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa, are also the smallest tetrapods (four-legged animals with backbones.)

The pair can be found relatively close to one another. P. dekot can be found below about 4,000 feet on the western slope of Mt. Dayman, in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, and P. verrucosa inhabits the southeastern slope of Mt. Suckling, near a region that joins Mt. Dayman.

While we can easily find larger, it’s not likely that we will find smaller frogs then these, because this appears to be the limit of body size for frogs and toads. These specimens are brown or red-brown in color, with spots of brown and blackish triangles on their sides for camouflage. P. verrucosa has many protrusions on its skin, along with some yellow coloring.

Due to small animals having even smaller thumbs, they don’t climb. Instead, they stick to the forest floor, hiding in the leaves and moss. It is possible that they eat tiny arthropods like mites, which can be found there. Their diminutive size also dictates that females of both species can only have two eggs, limiting reproduction.