Eleutherodactylus iberia
| Monte Iberia eleuth | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Eleutherodactylidae |
| Genus: | Eleutherodactylus |
| Subgenus: | Euhyas |
| Species: | E. iberia |
| Binomial name | |
|
Eleutherodactylus iberia Estrada and Hedges, 1996 |
|
 |
|
| Distribution of E. iberia in Cuba | |
The Monte Iberia eleuth (Eleutherodactylus iberia) is a small eleutherodactylid frog endemic to eastern Cuba. It is the smallest living frog in the Northern Hemisphere, about 10 mm (0.39 in) in snout–vent length. It is the third-smallest frog (and tetrapod) in the world, following Paedophryne amauensis and the Brazilian gold frog. It was first discovered in 1993 on Mount Iberia (Holguín Province), from which it gets its name, and exists in only two small regions of Cuba. Much remains unknown about this small creature.
This diminutive species was first documented by Cuban scientist Alberto R. Estrada of the Institute of Forest Research in Havana, working with S. Blair Hedges of Pennsylvania State University in association with the National Science Foundation's Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program. On a 1993 expedition to Cuchillas de Moa in search of the ivory-billed woodpecker (now believed to be extinct), four E. iberia specimens were collected after being uncovered under leaf litter and among the roots of ferns in a secondary hardwood forest on the western slope of Monte Iberia. The find was published in the journal Copeia, where the name Eleutherodactylus iberia was introduced.
E. iberia is physically similar to E. limbatus and E. orientalis, but it is generally darker and the lines on its back do not extend as far to the rear. Because of the extreme miniaturization of the species, it possesses fewer teeth than related species and a laryngeal apparatus comparable in size to the head of a pin (resulting in a high-pitched call of a series of irregular chirps, comparable to other species of the genus).
...
Wikipedia