Ecological guild evolution and the discovery of the world's smallest vertebrate.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Rittmeyer EN
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3256195 | biostudies-literature | 2012
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Ecological guild evolution and the discovery of the world's smallest vertebrate.
Rittmeyer Eric N EN Allison Allen A Gründler Michael C MC Thompson Derrick K DK Austin Christopher C CC
PloS one 20120111 1
Living vertebrates vary drastically in body size, yet few taxa reach the extremely minute size of some frogs and teleost fish. Here we describe two new species of diminutive terrestrial frogs from the megadiverse hotspot island of New Guinea, one of which represents the smallest known vertebrate species, attaining an average body size of only 7.7 mm. Both new species are members of the recently described genus Paedophryne, the four species of which are all among the ten smallest known frog speci ...[more]
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