[Animals] Pristimantis ledzeppelin, the new species of frog discovered in the Cordillera del Cóndor of Ecuador

[#Steeven.™]

The new species is likely to be found only in the area where it was found.

A new species of land frog described in the Cordillera del Cóndor by Ecuadorian researchers has been named Pristimantis ledzeppelin, in honor of the mythical British rock band Led Zeppelin.

His finding, in the community of Río Blanco, in that mountain range of the Ecuadorian Andean system, has been published this month in the scientific journal Neotropical Biodiversity.

It is likely that the new species is only found in the area where it was found, say the researchers who wanted to honor the British band formed in 1968, of enormous influence on later rock, by giving its name to the new frog found.

The research was developed by a team from the San Francisco de Quito University (USFQ), in collaboration with the National Institute of Biodiversity (INABIO), reported this Wednesday this entity attached to the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition of Ecuador.

The new species is characterized by having finely tuberculated skin on the back and flanks, a distinctive sca[CENSORED]r fold, and a rounded snout with a small rostral papilla, the institution specified.

It also has truncated digit discs, English, and hidden yellowish thigh surfaces and distinctive blackish-brown markings and coppery-red irises.

According to researchers David Brito-Zapata and Carolina Reyes-Puig (associated with INABIO), land frogs of the genus Pristimantis are an extremely diverse group of vertebrates that currently comprise 569 known species.

Only in the last two years, twenty-eight species of this genus have been described in Ecuador, of which fourteen are from the southern Andes, a region that has proven to be one of the most diverse in small vertebrates and with high endemism.

The Cordillera del Cóndor is a mountain range with rugged topography in southeastern Ecuador and northern Peru, located east of the main body of the eastern Andes.

The great biodiversity of this region is still unknown, although in recent years there have been several discoveries of amphibians restricted to this endemic area.

This mountainous system is part of one of the most threatened ecoregions in the world, due to the expansion of agriculture and livestock frontiers, logging, small and large-scale mining, also due to the introduction of diseases, as well as possible effects of the climate change, scientists say.