During a 2009 expedition to the Pau-Rosa National Forest in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, biologist Pedro Peloso and his colleagues found clown tree frogs singing along the banks of the Paraconi River. The previously unknown species that measures a mere 2 centimeters (cm) in length has now been named Dendropsophus mapinguari (South American Journal of Herpetology, April 2016). The name pays homage to the hairless one-eyed mythological creature that inhabits the Amazonian imagination. The yellow amphibian is marked with either patches or streaks in reddish-brown. The two versions appear to exist in equal proportions, but little is known about their ecology. “In the Amazon, we seldom have the resources to go back to a particular site,” says the researcher.
Image submitted by Pedro Peloso, postdoctoral researcher at the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi
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