new species????:D

ok i was not gonna post anything until i knew for sure.... but maybe some of you guys can give ideas...even though your are all on the otherside of the world.

I found this frog...it is definitely a frog from the genus Hyperolius. The only two species it could be here are... Hyperolius Marmoratus and Hyperolius tuberilinguis.

What sucks is that i have only been able to find one specimen. Feet are a good way to ID a frog, so i decided to compare feet



ok...the feet of tuberilinguis look exact! Now i compared the profiles...umm now what? Now only DNA can tell...and i leave in two and a half weeks for a long looong time!



oh and another thing is that i heard it call very quickly once... a different call to the other species

ERMM i don't know devon but hopefully it is goo dluck with that where's matt when you need him?

Dev,,,,I'd say it was a Hyperolius tuberilinguis, kind of hard to tell the coloration, but the foot and profile are pretty close.

Hmmm...i'm interested to see how this works out. What would you name it?

Maybe it has laryngitis.

Maybe a sub species of tuberilinguis, the feet are identical but the snout (is that right for a frog) is defiantly different, when a frog ages does the face morph?

Yea sorry i don't know much about frogs, but good luck, feet look pretty close but the facial features are so different!

Thanks for the input

I am also very involved in the scientific world of things so don't worry, I know what to cover and what is involved in the process. Your paper has to just get published in a recognized herpetological journal which therefore gets reviewed by the board. I also know the process of naming a species.... so don't worry about guiding me in that.

Ok…as I have said, i did look at the genus as a whole...i compared those two species as they are the only ones it could be. I have looked at all the different avenues it could go… broadening my search to an entire family would prove useless and a waste of time(other than comparison in DNA for the paper)… it is definitely from the genus Hyperolius(if you would like details on the morphological characteristics which make it that genus pm me)

There are only 8 species in the hyperolius genus that are found in South Africa… blah I am not gonna go on lol. No offence to anyone please… I will stop myself noww as it could go on and on.

I just thought I would share what I found with you guys lol…because no-one here gets excited over herps like me… haha on HC I have somewhere to go and share my excitement and enthusiasm.

I am not one just to say I have found something interesting just for the sake of it…. I have been involved in the discovery of undescribed species in the past…so I know how to do my homework on this one. The only thing is that time is not on my side at the moment as I am leaving in 2 weeks (the reason why I thought I will just share with you guys). Well DNA is gonna answer alot very soon… I am very aware it is probably nothing new. That is why I was going to wait before posting anything…but I thought you guys would be interested. If I find anything in the future that sparks an idea in me….should I rather wait for 100% proof after a few months or just throw it out there and let you guys get involved like I have now? Haha sorry…just my 2 cents

Thanks for all the input everyone

Devon, I may be a little late. As of this month the entire Amphibian family has been going through a lot of reclassification and debate. I follow from left field so I'm not sure where the focus is but I'm pretty sure it is on Hyperolius and dendrobates. I'm pretty sure the DNA gurus aren't even able to sort this one out, it is going to be tossed around for a while. Either way, just working with some of the Hyperolius you see would be a huge reward for me.

yeah big changes happening everywhere...it is amazing. People are gonna have fun making new field guides . I know bufo has also gone thru a big reclassification over here at least... i need to do some more reading soon(been a bit tied up for the last while)...papers are getting spat out every minute looks like it. Well knowledge is power

but the DNA...all i need is to show it is not H. tuberilinguis(the only possible candidate), then i am on to somthing. So dna will help just to compare the 2. Will let yall know as soon as i have results from stellenboch university.

Originally Posted by Tha3rdman

Maybe a sub species of tuberilinguis, the feet are identical but the snout (is that right for a frog) is defiantly different, when a frog ages does the face morph?

the frogs in comparison are both adults...this is what got me interested. otherwise i would have just passed it up as H. tuberilinguis.