Three new frog species found in Peruvian Andes with more to come

• Few biological surveys have been conducted in the Pui Pui Protected Forest in the decades since it was established in 1985, and “the potential for additional discoveries is enormous,” according to one researcher who helped discover the three new frog species.
• The three new species all belong to a family of land-breeding frogs called Craugastoridae whose embryos hatch as froglets rather than going through a tadpole stage, which allows them to survive in a wide array of habitat types with sufficient moisture.
• The researchers say they will describe three more new frogs as well as two new lizards they’ve discovered in the Pui Pui Protected Forest in future papers.

Three new frog species have been discovered in the montane forests and Andean grasslands of Peru’s Pui Pui Protected Forest.

Rudolf von May, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan and one of the authors of a paper describing the three new species that was published in the journal Zootaxa late last month, said in a statement that there are many more species discoveries to be made in the region — and teased the fact that he and his colleagues might soon be announcing further new finds of their own, including frogs and lizards.

Few biological surveys have been conducted in the Pui Pui Protected Forest in the decades since it was established in 1985, and “the potential for additional discoveries is enormous,” von May added.

“Our team has now described five new species of frogs from this region, with several more to -read more