Spotting the smallest frog: as hopes fades for one species, a tiny frog comes into view - discovery of Eleutherodactylus iberia

Animals, May-June, 1997 by Mark Jermoe Walters

As hope fades for one species' a tiny frog comes into view.

. . . snout sub acuminate . . . canthus rostralis rounded, slightly concave in dorsal view; loreal region flat, sloping abruptly; . . . interorbital space not tuberculate; supratympanic fold weakly defined . . . postrictal tubercles elevated subconical; choanae small, round, partially concealed by palatal shelf of maxillary arch . . . vomerine teeth absent.

A portrait of life from Mars? Hardly. This is the scientific description, published in the journal, Copeia of a new species of frog discovered in eastern Cuba--a frog so tiny that its name, Eleutherodactylus iberia, as printed here, is more than three times longer than its body. Just over a third of an inch long, the frog has beat out a lot of competition for its status as the world's smallest, including more than 500 species in its own genus.

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It also ties the record with a frog from southwestern Brazil as the tiniest tetrapod, a grouping that includes all animals with backbones except fishes--some 25,000 species in all. By way of comparison, the smallest bird is the bee hummingbird of Cuba (about two and a half inches in body length); the smallest mammal is a Mediterranean shrew (less than an inch long); and the smallest lizard is the West Indian gecko (just over a half inch long).

The new species is most closely related to two others, E. limbatus and E. orientalis, both from Cuba. But it is generally darker, and the lines on its back do not extend as far to the rear. Microscopic observation has determined that the new species has a distinctly narrower head than E. orientalis.

When a species gets to be as miniature as these frogs, something must give in the process. In the case of the tiny trio from this genus, they have "dropped" a few teeth and have inherited laryngeal apparatus scarcely bigger than the head of a pin. As a result, E. iberia has a high-pitched call consisting of a series of irregular chirps, similar in some ways to other species of the genus.

The frog also has an extremely small clutch size. The female specimen upon which the scientific description is based was found next to a single egg, suggesting that the species lays only one egg in each clutch. And with reproductive success falling on the back of a single offspring, it's natural that the parents would be more involved in raising the young. It was probably no accident that this female, scooped up and made famous, was found so close to her egg.

At the time of the discovery, Alberto R. Estrada, of the Institute of Forest Research in Havana, and S. Blair Hedges, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, were not exactly sure what they had--only that among numerous specimens of amphibians taken during an expedition to the Cuchillas de Moa, in eastern Cuba, were four tiny frogs with orange-striped backs, found under leaves on the ground and near the roots of ferns in a lush hardwood forest on the western slope of Monte Iberia (hence the species' name).

"We have turned up a lot of new species in Cuba in recent years, so in that sense this frog is one in a line," says Hedges. "Its importance lies in its tiny size and that so many unique and interesting species are turning up in Cuba." The forests in the region where it lives are rapidly shrinking, he said--"one more reason to try and stop the destruction there." According to Hedges, virtually all of Cuba's forests are dwindling because of poor economic conditions, which have led to clearing land for crops and to over-harvesting wood for building and for making charcoal to cook with.

Ironically, the expedition during which the frog was collected had set out in search of the ivory-billed woodpecker--now believed to be extinct. One species vanquishes as we find and view another in amazement.

To scientists the species may represent just another small step in the advancement of knowledge. But the discovery gives us reason to pause. While we are easily captivated by the gargantuan size of the great blue whale, E. iberia reminds us that wonder lies at both ends of the scale.

Contributing editor and veterinarian Mark Jerome Walters writes frequently on endangered species.

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Spotting the smallest frog: as hopes fades for one species, a tiny frog comes into view - discovery of Eleutherodactylus iberia

Animals, May-June, 1997 by Mark Jermoe Walters

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