A new species of mountain frog that changes color in response to its surroundings has been discovered in northeast Thailand.
The Odorrana aureola, known locally as the Phu Luang Cliff frog after the national park where it was found, can grow to 3.5 inches (80 millimeters) and has a green body which occasionally turns brown, researchers said.
“It reflects its surrounds,” said Tanya Chan-ard, curator of Bangkok’s National Science Museum, who studied the frog with a team of government biologists and researchers.
Tanya Chan-ard said it was the world’s newest species of mountain frog, and was found only in Phu Luang National Park, which covers parts of the three mountainous northeastern Thai provinces.
The frog can only be found at waterfalls and creeks between 3,300 and 4,900 feet (1,000 and 1,500 meters) above sea level, he added.
“We found the frog quite some time ago but we began seriously studying it at the DNA level last year,” said Tanya Chan-ard, who presented his findings at a seminar in Bangkok.
The team’s findings were confirmed by US-based experts with the natural history journal Fieldiana last year, he added.
Researchers do not know how many of the Odorrana aureola are in the Thai wild, but Tanya Chan-ard said there were probably not very many as they did not breed very often.adapted from an AFP news release, May 25, 2007
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
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