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News > Science and Tech

New Golden Frog Species Discovered in Colombia

  • Colombia has the second-largest amphibian diversity in the world, after Brazil.

    Colombia has the second-largest amphibian diversity in the world, after Brazil. | Photo: Reuters

Published 18 March 2016
Opinion

The new frog, Pristimantis dorado, was named after El Dorado the mythical city of gold the Spanish colonizers sought after for years.

Scientists have discovered a new species of gold-colored frog in the cloud forest of the high Andes in Colombia, according to media reports Friday.

“The Spaniards assumed Colombia's wealth was its gold, but today we understand that the real riches of the country lie in its biodiversity,” said Andrew Crawford, a research associate of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and faculty member at the Universidad de Los Andes.

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The STRI was among a team of scientists to make the discovery of the new amphibian, dubbed Pristimantis dorado. The term "dorado" is Spanish for "golden" but is also a reference to the city of El Dorado, the mythical city of gold that the first Spanish colonizers sought after for years when they first arrived in South America.

The frog was found calling from bushes along a roadside near Chingaza National Park, roughly 10 miles east of the capital Bogota, at an elevation of 8,700 feet. The golden frog is most vocal at night.

According to Crawford, with this new discovery, Colombia now hosts 800 species of amphibians, the second-highest amphibian diversity in the world, after Brazil.

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