Charles Darwin discovered the Frog on his World Voyage
This species is small and native to forest streams of Chile and Argentina.
Classification
Kingdom – Animalia
Phylum – Chordata
Class – Amphibia
Order- Anura
Family – Rhinodermatidae
Genus – Rhinoderma
Species- darwinii
It is a small species with a triangular head, fleshy proboscis.Their hands and legs are longer with no web in front feet. The upper body is warty, coloured with brown and green and camouflage property.their eyes have horizontal pupils and have poisonous skin glands. These frogs are carnivores in the feeding habit which feeds on snails, insects and worms.These are attacking predators as they trap and capture food with their sticky tongue.these are aquatic but also live on land or in burrows.
These species are fragmented and have poor dispersal ability.The home of these frogs lies in temperate forest and near human habitats. These species are specialised to have brooding habits. The breeding can occur year round in freshwater where males attract females with bell-like calls. When young ones are nearly to hatch , males take with them and keep them in their vocal pouch (50-70 days) until they are able to protect themselves, till then they don’t eat anything and young frogs hop out when they get mature. Their metamorphosis reached upto six weeks during which limbs, mouth and tail are formed.
These are often distributed into smooth skinned, squat warty to hopping ones called toads.the biggest threat to this species is from fungus chytrid as it causes infectious disease called chytridiomycosis. These are listed as Vulnerable species but after 2018, IUCN declared them as Endangered as they started disappearing from their regions due to non native tree plantations in those areas. The captive colonies are established in two zoos in Chile ( National zoo and Concepcion zoo) for precautions.
ECHINOPS – Erakina
THE CLOSEST LIVING RELATION TO HUMANS – ERAKINA
