Smallest Vertebrate on Earth Is a Tiny Frog

A forest floor in Papua New Guinea revealed the smallest vertebrate ever discovered on the surface of the planet. The tiny frog is smaller than the smallest fish, and is now known Paedophryne amanuensis. Though discovered nearly 3 years ago, it took experts a long time to present their findings to the world.

Herpetologist Christopher Austin and graduate student Eric Rittmeyer, at the Museum of Natural Science at Louisiana State University (LSU), say that the frog is way smaller than a dime, and yet is capable of emitting a high-pitched, cricketlike “tink-tink-tink,” according to LiveScience.

P. amanuensis is just 0.3 inches (7.7 millimeters) in length, shorter than Paedocypris progenetica, the previous record-holder. The latter is an Indonesian fish that dwells in acidic swamps.

“We don't really know what [P. amanuensis] eat, we know very little about their ecology. They are probably eating very, very small invertebrates that occupy the leaf litter, like mites,” Austin says.