South Australians have been asked to help find a mysterious new species of frog. The new species will be the fifth species of frog known to live in the southern part of the peninsula.
The mysterious frog first came into researchers’ sights when door-squeaking calls were uploaded to a site called FrogID, an Australian Museum citizen science project on frog research.
At the moment only the call of the obscure species is known, and what is known about it is that its song was observed at the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula, west of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.Biologist Steve Donnellan urged the locals to listen carefully and put the frog on the end of the microphone. Scientists want to find a name for the amphibian in collaboration with the native community.
The new species will be the fifth species of frog known to live in the southern part of the peninsula.
The researchers hypothesize that the amphibian is a relative of a species called the Bibron lying frog, which is common in South Australia.
The discovery of the new frog species could help us understand how amphibians respond to the effects of climate change, Donnellan said.
(MTI/Xinhua)
