''Leiopelma auroraensis'', known as the Aurora frog, is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
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 ...
that was found in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
One
subfossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
of the Aurora frog has been discovered in the
Aurora Cave,
Fiordland
Fiordland is a geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the westernmost third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lakes, ...
, New Zealand. It measured about 60 mm from the snout to the vent. It is named after the Aurora Cave for where it was found.
The other extinct
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
frogs are
Markham's frog and
Waitomo frog
The Waitomo frog (''Leiopelma waitomoensis'') is an extinct species of the genus '' Leiopelma'' from New Zealand.
The Waitomo frog's distribution was solely in the North Island of New Zealand. Its extinction is believed to have happened during ...
.
Aurora frog probably was a local form that had evolved from the more widely distributed Markham's frog.
[
]
See also
* List of amphibians of New Zealand
*List of extinct animals of New Zealand
This is a list of New Zealand species extinct in the Holocene that covers extinctions from the Holocene epoch, a geologic epoch that began about 11,650 years before present (about 9700 BCE) and continues to the present day.
New Zealand prop ...
References
Leiopelmatidae
Amphibians of New Zealand
Extinct animals of New Zealand
Amphibians described in 1987
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