A frog that carries its young on its back: Peru describes a new species after more than ten years of study

Peru has a new frog. It’s called Gastrotheca sanmartin and it’s a marsupial frog: females carry their eggs in a pouch on their back. Peru’s protected areas service (Sernanp) announced it on Monday 9 November.

Where it lives

It turned up in the Alto Mayo Protection Forest, in the San Martín region in the north of the country. It was in wet high-mountain grassland at 3,254 metres. The species is named after that region.

Ten years to confirm it

Researchers found a single adult female in 2014. Confirming that it was different from every known species took more than ten years. The work was done by scientists from the National University of San Marcos and the University of California.

Juan Cusi, from San Marcos, says Alto Mayo still holds undescribed species. Ivonne Paico, head of the protected area, says the find shows why mountain ecosystems need protecting.

Frogs without tadpoles

Gastrotheca frogs don’t lay their eggs in water. The mother carries them in a pouch on her back, and fully formed froglets emerge, with no free-swimming tadpole stage. More than 70 species are known. They live in high mountains and cloud forests from Central to South America, especially in the Andes of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.

News reports don’t yet give the new species’ size or conservation status. With only one known specimen, nobody knows how many there are.

Another recent find in South America: Victoria colombiana, a giant water lily identified thanks to Instagram photos.