The Waitomo frog (''Leiopelma waitomoensis'') 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 In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of the genus ''

Leiopelma __NOTOC__ ''Leiopelma'' is a genus of New Zealand primitive frogs, belonging to the suborder Archaeobatrachia. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Leiopelmatidae. The leiopelmatids' relatively basal form indicates they have an ancient li ...

'' from

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 ...

. The Waitomo frog's distribution was solely in the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

of New Zealand. Its

extinction 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 ...

is believed to have happened during the last 1000 years. Its

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 ...

remains were discovered at a cave near

Waitomo Waitomo is a rural community in the King Country region of New Zealand's North Island. There are several solutional cave systems in the area around the village, which are popular tourist attractions. Restaurants and accommodation are centred in ...

. ''L. waitomoensis'' was a large, robust frog, and presumably many times heavier than other native frogs. It was around 100 mm in length, about twice the size of any other native New Zealand frogs. It was first described by

Trevor H. Worthy Trevor Henry Worthy (born 3 January 1957) is an Australia-based paleozoologist from New Zealand, known for his research on moa and other extinct vertebrates. Biography Worthy grew up in Broadwood, Northland, and went to Whangarei Boys' High S ...

in 1987 along with the Aurora frog and

Markham's frog Markham's frog (''Leiopelma markhami'') is one of three extinct New Zealand frog species, the others being the Aurora frog (''Leiopelma auroraensis'') and Waitomo frog (''Leiopelma waitomoensis''). Subfossil bones used to describe the species ...

References

Leiopelmatidae Amphibians of New Zealand Extinct animals of New Zealand Amphibians described in 1987 Holocene extinctions {{Anura-stub

See also

References