Horned Marsupial Frog

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Biodiversity, Nature, Wildlife, Sustainability, Global Change, Science & Society

Ed Hessler

--In that moment, I was incredibly excited.--Herpetologist Stanley Salazar

You may have seen a report on the rediscovery of a rare frog, the horned marsupial frog, which lives in the canopy of trees of Central and South America.

Donna Staaf, Smithsonian Magazine (December 2023) has a profile with a portrait by photographer Javier Asnar Conzales de Rueda. Well named, the "horns" are found on the eyelids.

What do you think of when you hear the word marsupial? Probably pouched animals, notably the kangaroo, but Staaf tells us that "a surprising variety of creatures have evolved this unusual means of parental care, including crustaceans, seahorses--and frogs". Horned marsupial frog females produce, at most 10 eggs, that are whoppers, the largest amphibian eggs in the world, measuring "one centimeter in diameter" (~ 0.40 inches).

The eggs are fertilized and then the male places them in pouches on the female's back. There the necessary structures to "deliver oxygen, water, and possibly nutrients There they develop into "forest ready froglets, skipping the tadpole stage."

It is thought that their life in the canopy which is humid-rich prevents their skin from drying. These frogs will never know life in a water pond but an atmospheric one.

Now we come to the "however," in such stories. It is one of habitat change, "logging and plantation clearing" plus the global non-human pandemic, caused by Chytrid fungus. It was feared extinct in both Panama and Costa Rica. Stanley Salazur, a Costa Rican biologist, rediscovered them in 2013. In 2018 researchers in Equador also rediscovered them. 

Another story showing the importance of conservation efforts including the protection of "remote, vulnerable habitats".

Essay and Photograph are here.