A newfound frog species in the Boophis genus, photo: Miguel Vences
After finding more than a hundred new frog species in Madagascar over the past 15 years, scientists thought that they'd found everything - but a new study done by a team of international scientists had found up to 221 new species in the island country:
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.
"People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet," team member Miguel Vences, of the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, said in a statement.
"But the century of discoveries has only just begun—the majority of life-forms on Earth is still awaiting scientific recognition."
Which brings us to the obligatory statement from the President of Madagascar:
With apologies to the scientists ;)
There is just something so cute about them. Even if they scare the bejeesus out of you when you are 5 on the toilet in the bush.