Natural History Wanderings

I previously wrote about the discovery of the world’s smallest frogs on December 16 last year in New Record Holders For Smallest Frogs The record has already been broken.

National Geographic reports the new record holder for the world’s smallest known vertebrate (and frog) is a frog the size of a housefly. The new frog Paedophryne amauensis, an average of 7.7 millimeters long, which is slightly smaller than the previous record holder, the Southeast Asian fish species Paedocypris progenetica, whose females measure about 7.9 millimeters.  Scientists found Paedophryne amauensis as well as another new species of tiny frog, Paedophryne swiftorum, which measures about 8.6 millimeters in field surveys in southern Papua New Guinea. Previously, the smallest frogs were the  8.5 to 9 millimeters long Paedophryne dekot and the bumpy-skinned Paedophrne verrucosa who is  8.8 to 9.3 millimeters in length.

Read more about at National Geographic  World’s Smallest Frog Found—Fly-Size Beast Is Tiniest Vertebrate.

I hadn’t even posted the above  and already a challenge. NPR reports in Mine’s Smaller! Claim About Tiny Frog Is Challenged that according to The Associated Press:

“The males of a species of deep-sea anglerfish are about 2 mm smaller, said University of Washington ichthyologist Theodore Pietsch, who described them in 2006. The males don’t have stomachs and live as parasites on 1.8-inch (4.57-centimeter)-long females.”