{"id":516871,"date":"2024-08-20T11:13:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T14:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=516871"},"modified":"2024-08-20T11:13:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T14:13:15","slug":"the-smallest-vertebrate-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/the-smallest-vertebrate-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The smallest vertebrate in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_516872\" style=\"max-width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright vertical\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-516872 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RPF-notas-sapinho-pulga-2024-04-800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RPF-notas-sapinho-pulga-2024-04-800.jpg 800w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RPF-notas-sapinho-pulga-2024-04-800-250x196.jpg 250w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RPF-notas-sapinho-pulga-2024-04-800-700x550.jpg 700w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/RPF-notas-sapinho-pulga-2024-04-800-120x94.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">Iuri Ribeiro Dias\u2009\/\u2009UESC<\/span>Flea toad: fits on the tip of a person\u2019s little finger<span class=\"media-credits\">Iuri Ribeiro Dias\u2009\/\u2009UESC<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>The male Brazilian flea toad (<em>Brachycephalus pulex<\/em>) is the smallest known vertebrate in the world, measuring 6.45 millimeters (mm) in length. The animal, first discovered in the Serra Bonita reserve, southern Bahia, in 2011, fits comfortably on the tip of a person\u2019s little finger. Now, a comparison with 46 other adults of the species performed by herpetologist Mirco Sol\u00e9 and colleagues from the State University of Santa Cruz in Ilh\u00e9us has reinforced the findings, showing that males average 7 mm in length and females 8 mm, as described in the journal <em>Zoologica Scripta<\/em> in February. The toad\u2019s tiny feet have just two toes instead of the usual five, a result of the small size that has also been observed in other amphibians. It does not seem to cause a problem as they hop across the forest floor, but a 2021 study showed that they tend to lose their balance when in the air. Sol\u00e9 suggests that for an even smaller vertebrate to exist, other adaptations would be necessary. It seems increasingly difficult to break miniaturization records without losing crucial body parts (<em>Science News<\/em>, February 27).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flea toad (<em>Brachycephalus pulex<\/em>), from Bahia, is the smallest known vertebrate","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1651],"tags":[206,266],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-516871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-biodiversity","tag-zoology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":516880,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516871\/revisions\/516880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516871"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=516871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}