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Top 10 new species of 2015: Cartwheeling spiders, 'chicken from hell' and a giant stick insect celebrated in the year's first official list (13)

By RICHARD GRAY (Mail Online)    14:30, December 23, 2015
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The frog that gives birth to live tadpoles

Name: Limnonectes larvaepartus

Location: Sulawesi Island, Indonesia

What is it: Indonesian fanged frog

Why it made the list: There is always an exception to every rule and the newest species of fanged frog is such an exception.

Unlike other frogs, Limnonectes larvaepartus from Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, gives birth to tadpoles that are deposited in pools of water.

On one occasion, a female gave birth to a tadpole in the hand of a scientist at the moment she was captured.

Fewer than a dozen of the world's 6,455 frog species have internal fertilization and all except this new species lay fertilized eggs or give birth to tiny froglets.

The species, about 1.5 inches long (40mm), is found in the island's Northern Peninsula on the western edge of the Central Core.

The region has not been fully explored for frogs, so the extent of this species' range is not yet known.

The frogs live in natural and disturbed forest habitats, often in areas occupied by one to five other species of the same genus. The frogs are found above flowing streams in leaf litter, grassy vegetation, or on rocky substrates.

The male Limnonectes larvaepartus frog (left) is much smaller than the female (right), which gives birth to live tadpoles rather than laying spawn that is then fertilised by the male, as occurs in the majority of other amphibian species


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(Editor:Yuan Can,Bianji)

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