''Craugastor chrysozetetes'' is a

possibly extinct The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

in the family

Craugastoridae Craugastoridae, commonly known as fleshbelly frogs, is a family of New World direct-developing frogs. As delineated here, following the Amphibian Species of the World, it contains 129 species. They are found from the southern United States south ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

where it is only known from near its type locality on the Cerro Búfalo, Cordillera de Nombre de Dios, at the edge of the

Pico Bonito National Park Pico Bonito National Park is a national park in Honduras. It was established on January 1, 1987 and covers an area of . It has an altitude ranging between 60 and 2,480 meters. Description Pico Bonito National Park is located on the northern area ...

. Common name McCranie's robber frog has been coined for this species. However, himself has argued that this name "should be rejected in favor of a name associated with the type locality instead of a name tied to one of the three authors who named this species".

Description

Adult males measure and adult females in snout–vent length. The snout is nearly rounded in dorsal view and rounded to nearly vertical in lateral view. Tympanum is absent, but there is a well-developed supra-tympanic fold. The fingers bear later keels and broadly expanded discs but have no webbing. The toes bear broadly expanded discs and have webbing, with lateral fleshy fringes in the non-webbed parts. Skin is variously wrinkled and bears many tubercles. The dorsal surfaces are dark olive brown and blotched with pale olive brown (male

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

) or mottled olive-green and dark olive-green (an adult female). The ventral surfaces of the body and throat are pale purple (male) to purplish brown with dull white flecking on the chin and pale blue flecking on the chest (female). ''Craugastor chrysozetetes'' appears to have been able to form hybrids with '' Craugastor fecundus''.

Habitat and conservation

Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

was premontane wet forest at elevations of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. It occurred along the stream Quebrada de Oro. It was always a rare species, and after several visits to the only known site failed to locate the species, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN) assessed it as extinct in 2004. The cause of extinction is thought have been

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

and change (deforestation resulting from agricultural encroachment, human settlement of the region, logging, fires, and landslides).

Chytridiomycosis Chytridiomycosis ( ) is an infectious disease in amphibians, caused by the chytrid fungi ''Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis'' and ''Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans''. Chytridiomycosis has been linked to dramatic population declines or extincti ...

might also have played a role. However, this was changed to Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) in 2019 following the possibility that it may survive within

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3002261 chrysozetetes Endemic fauna of Honduras Amphibians of Honduras Amphibian extinctions since 1500 Amphibians described in 1989 Taxa named by Jay M. Savage Taxonomy articles created by Polbot