''Nasikabatrachus bhupathi'', or Bhupathy's purple frog, is a

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 ...

species belonging to the family Nasikabatrachidae. It can be found in the Western Ghats in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and was discovered near the Srivilliputhur Grizzled Giant Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

honors the late Indian herpetologist

Subramanian Bhupathy Subramanian Bhupathy (also spelled as Subramaniam Bhupathy) (17 July 1962 Nayaganaipiriyal, Tamil Nadu, British India – 28 April 2014 Agastya Malai Hills, Kerala, India) was an Indian herpetologist, wildlife biologist and researcher. He was a p ...

(1963–2014)

Taxonomy

''Nasikabatrachus bhupathi'' and ''Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis'' have been found to be related to other frogs that live in the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

, which are closer to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

than to India. This is consistent with the idea that Africa and India were once part of the same ancient supercontinent, called Gondwanaland, which eventually became part of the later supercontinent, .

Description

The species has purple skin and blue eyes and lives underground. It differs genetically, morphologically, and acoustically from the closely related ''

Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis ''Nasikabatrachus'' is a genus of frogs. It is presently treated as the only genus in the family Nasikabatrachidae, though previously it was included in the family Sooglossidae. Two species are recognized, ''Nasikabatrachus bhupathi'' and '' Nas ...

''.

Speciation Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...

between the two species is likely caused by the different

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

seasons on the different sides of the Western Ghats, causing ''N. sahyadrensis'' to breed between May and August and ''N. bhupathi'' to breed between October and December.

Status

This species is considered Critically Endangered on 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 the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

due to its very small range, which is mostly threatened by water extraction, pollution, and disturbance from tourism.

References

External links

Continental drift and the Sooglossidae''Nasikabatrachus bhupathi'' on ZooBank
{{Taxonbar, from=Q37785702 Nasikabatrachidae Frogs of India Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats Amphibians described in 2017 Taxa named by Ramesh K. Aggarwal Taxa named by Karthikeyan Vasudevan