New Brown Frog Species Discovered in Chongqing, China
· newswise.com · popularity 14/100 · 0 similar stories today · Biology & Life Sciences (Science)
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Summary
<img src="https://www.newswise.com/legacy/image.php?image=https://media.newswise.com/pio/articles/857435/6ae0cd8832ad8_1_857435.jpg&width=100&height=150" alt="Newswise image" />Researchers have described Rana shii sp. nov., a medium-sized brown frog from Chongqing, China, that forms an independent evolutionary lineage and is the sister species of Rana maershanensis. The species is distinguished by a combination of features, including the absence of a vocal sac, well-developed dorsolateral folds that are straight or slightly curved outward at the temporal region and do not connect to the posterior corner of the eye, toe tips without lateroventral grooves, and hindlimbs that bring the tibiotarsal articulation to or beyond the snout tip when stretched. Field observations indicate that it breeds in ponds in early April. The discovery expands the known range of this unassigned Rana lineage into southwestern China and highlights overlooked brown-frog diversity.
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