Gardiner's Seychelles frog (''Sechellophryne gardineri'') is a small

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

of the family

Sooglossidae Sooglossidae, the Seychelles frogs or Seychelles Island frogs, are a family of frogs found on the Seychelles Islands. Until recently, this family was believed to include the genera '' Sechellophryne'', '' Nesomantis'' and '' Sooglossus'', but fo ...

and

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

. It is named after

John Stanley Gardiner John Stanley Gardiner (1872–1946) was a British zoologist. Biography Stanley, as he was known, was the younger son of John Jephson Gardiner and Sarah McTier. He was born in Jordanstown (Belfast) in 1872 – two years after his brother Arthur. ...

, English zoologist and oceanographer.

Description

Gardiner's frog is one of the smallest frogs in the world, reaching a maximum length of . Newly hatched frogs measure in length. Adult males are long. It is brown in color, and has a dark stripe running from its mouth to its legs. This frog is notable for its ability to hear despite the absence of a middle ear cavity. Research has shown that the species is able to use its mouth cavity to amplify sound and transmit it to the inner ear, as explained by co-author '' Jean-François Aubry''. SmallestFrogComparison

Ecology and behavior

Gardiner's frog is a terrestrial frog, feeding on small invertebrates including

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...

s, sciarid larvae,

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

s, and

amphipod Amphipoda () is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods () range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 10,700 amphipod species cur ...

s. It is restricted to the high- and mid-altitude areas of Mahé and

Silhouette Island Silhouette Island lies northwest of Mahé, Seychelles, Mahé in the Seychelles. It is the third largest Granitic Seychelles, granitic island in the Seychelles. It has an area of 20.1 km2 and has a population of 200, mostly workers on the ...

s of the

group. This is unusual among the

, as most are restricted to the high altitudes, which have a stable climate due to constant mist. Eggs are laid in small clumps on moist ground and hatch as fully formed small adult frogs. Although Gardiner's frog is common at many sites, it is classified as endangered by the

IUCN Red List 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 an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

because it is restricted to only three locations representing five subpopulations.

Taxonomy

Genetic analysis indicates that the two populations of this species are distinct from each other and are possibly even separate species. It has thus been proposed that both populations be considered evolutionary significant units for conservation purposes.

References

External links

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Monitoring and research into Seychelles amphibians and reptiles
Sechellophryne Amphibians of Seychelles Endemic fauna of Seychelles Amphibians described in 1911 Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger {{Neobatrachia-stub