E1: New Species— or new genus? Tiny Frogs from Southeast Asia!

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Mark Scherz, is one of the authors of a recent paper about a new genus (!!) of tiny frogs, Nanohyla, from Southeast Asia, the "pygmy narrow-mouthed frogs."

We learn about these amazing frogs that are 10 - 15 millimeters (about a half inch) long, get to listen to the call of a possibly new species of frog, and talk with Dr. Scherz about how to decide that a new genus is needed for this group of frogs.

Additionally, Dr. Scherz discusses why it's important for people to know about these frogs, and some possible applications of the knowledge of such tiny animals may provide!

The paper was published in Zoosystematics and Evolution (Vol 97(1), pages 21-54), with the title "Consequences of parallel miniaturisation in Microhylinae (Anura, Microhylidae), with the description of a new genus of diminutive South East Asia frogs." The paper may be viewed and downloaded for free (open access) here: https://zse.pensoft.net/article/57968/

You can follow Dr. Scherz on Twitter (@MarkScherz) or visit his website (http://www.markscherz.com ), and follow his podcast, Squamates (@SquaMatesPod), on Twitter, or visit his podcast website, squamatespod.com.

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies), like the podcast page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast ), and music in the Introduction of this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom ).

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