Frog in Madagascar

1. Under estimation" of Madagascar's natural riches, up to 221 new species of amphibians have been found on the island country, including the frog Boophis ulftunni, pictured. The find nearly doubles the number of known amphibians in Madagascar, a new study says. An international team of scientists discovered the new species after collecting 2,850 specimens from more than 170 sites, including the country's most visited and studied national parks. The work suggests that tropical amphibian diversity has been underestimated at an "unprecedented level" worldwide, the study authors write in the May 4 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
   
2. This frog in the Boophis genus was among more than 200 new species of amphibian discovered in Madagascar, one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet, experts said in May 2009. In the previous 15 years, scientists had found more than a hundred new frog species in the island country, "which led us to believe that our species inventory is almost complete," team member Frank Glaw, herpetology curator at Munich's Zoologische Staatssammlung, said in a statement.
3. Amphibian patterns of diversity, especially in the tropics, are not well understood, mainly because of incomplete information on species classification and distribution. In May 2009, for example, researchers unexpectedly found more than 200 new amphibian species in Madagascar, including the newly identified frog in the Boophis genus pictured above.
4. Rampant habitat destruction in Madagascar may be affecting more species than previously thought, both among amphibians (above, a newfound frog species in the Boophis genus) and other kinds of animals, experts said in May 2009. The deforestation rate in Madagascar is one of the highest on the planet, with more than 80 percent of the island's forests already lost. Other similar of frog look in Toads and see what is the different.