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Frogs might be famous for a lot of things – croaking‚ ending up where they shouldn’t‚ and even confusing the internet – but their teeth are not one of them. Most frog species barely even have them. There is a group of around 70 species‚ however‚ which has fangs. Hopping around Southeast Asia‚ they use their chompers to fight other frogs and even to help get their jaws around their crab and giant centipede prey. Now‚ scientists have found one more fanged frog species‚ and it just might be the smallest in the world. “This new species is tiny compared to other fanged frogs on the island where it was found‚ about the size of a quarter‚” said Jeff Frederick‚ a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum in Chicago and the study’s lead author‚ who conducted the research as a doctoral candidate at the University of California‚ Berkeley‚ in a statement sent to IFLScience. “Many frogs in this genus are giant‚ weighing up to two pounds. At the large end‚ this new species weighs about the same as a dime.” The new species also measures around 3 centimeters (1.18 inches) in body length‚ making it the smallest adult body size of any of the fanged frog species on the island where it was discovered.The frogs were found at three spots on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia‚ and it was their eggs that gave them away. This species lays its eggs on the sides of leaves and moss boulders‚ and so was given the name Limnonectes phyllofolia‚ with “phyllofolia" derived from the Greek works for "leaf" and "nest".After a while‚ the team began to see the little frogs alongside the eggs. “Normally when we’re looking for frogs‚ we’re scanning the margins of stream banks or wading through streams to spot them directly in the water‚” Frederick explained. “After repeatedly monitoring the nests though‚ the team started to find attending frogs sitting on leaves hugging their little nests.”On closer inspection‚ the team found that all the frogs that were guarding the eggs‚ laid 1-2 meters (3-6 feet) above small streams‚ steeps‚ and trickles‚ were all male. “Male egg guarding behavior isn’t totally unknown across all frogs‚ but it’s rather uncommon‚" said Frederick.Males guard the 5-millimeter round eggs before they hatch‚ after which tadpoles fall into the streams and seeps below.Image credit: Sean ReillyIn their paper‚ the team expresses confidence that the frog is a new species due to some key characteristics‚ including the egg-guarding behavior and small body size. In addition to these‚ the frogs make an advertisement call that is unique to the species. The most similar species‚ L. arathooni‚ has a call featuring high-pitched chirps‚ while the new species' call consists of a rapid series of clicks. L. phyllofolia also has reduced webbing compared to other species in the genus.The team also suggests that as well as this newly described species‚ there are potentially many more species of frogs present on the island of Sulawesi that have yet to be officially named to science. They propose that more fieldwork is needed to fully identify all these species and help conserve the habitats they live within.“Our findings also underscore the importance of conserving these very special tropical habitats. Most of the animals that live in places like Sulawesi are quite unique‚ and habitat destruction is an ever looming conservation issue for preserving the hyper diversity of species we find there. Learning about animals like these frogs that are found nowhere else on Earth helps make the case for protecting these valuable ecosystems‚” concluded Frederick.The study is published in PLOS ONE.

Earlier this year we reported the story of three stars that back in July 1952 disappeared within an hour from the night sky forever‚ leaving behind a mystery with several possible explanations. But these are not the only stars that have gone missing‚ not by a long shot. In 2019‚ the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project attempted to catalog how many stars have disappeared from view in the last 70 years and found around 100 missing without a concrete explanation.The VASCO project compared images taken by the US Naval Observatory from 1949 onwards with images from the Pan-STARRS sky survey between 2010 and 2014. The software used by the team came back with around 150‚000 potential sources of light that had disappeared in the intervening years. They then cross-referenced with other datasets to narrow it down further. This process left them with 24‚000 candidates‚ which they then manually went through to exclude camera malfunctions and other errors. At the end of it‚ they had around 100 promising candidates for real sources of light that disappeared from our view.Stars may dim like Betelgeuse or explode as a supernova leaving an afterglow for hours or days‚ but generally do not simply vanish from view. One possible explanation is that they failed to go supernova‚ instead collapsing into a black hole. This is thought to be incredibly rare at less than 1 in 90 million‚ however‚ and would likely not explain why so many points of light have gone missing. A later study by VASCO‚ looking at further vanishing candidates‚ placed the failed supernova detection rate at less than 1 in 600 million.Other possibilities could be gravitational lensing‚ where space-time is warped by immensely heavy objects‚ sometimes magnifying objects far into the distance‚ or other brief bursts of light such as gamma-ray bursts getting captured in older surveys. Closer-moving objects‚ such as asteroids‚ could also account for these disappearances. While studying these objects is of interest to astrophysics who may have to explain mechanisms for star disappearance‚ one of the motivating factors behind the search was a lot more out there: the search for a Dyson Sphere‚ a hypothetical way advanced civilizations could harness the power of a star by surrounding it with solar panels. Searching these transients could (and that's a pretty big could) lead us to an advanced civilization."If a region of the sky has a tendency to produce an unexpectedly large fraction of candidates relative to the background‚ this region or 'hot spot' may deserve some extra attention." a different team wrote in their 2019 paper in The Astronomical Journal.However‚ the follow-up study did not identify good candidates for Dyson Spheres either‚ leaving us with a whole lot of missing stars and not much by way of explanation.An earlier version of this article was published in November 2023.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson appeared on “Redacted with Clayton Morris” last week and shared some information about investigations that he seemed genuinely concerned about carrying forward — one of which probably surprised a good number of viewers. After co-host Natali Morris — who spent years in the mainstream media with such publishers as… The post Tucker Carlson Says There Are Two Topics He’s Scared to Cover appeared first on The Federalist Papers.

The driving force of most parents is to safeguard their children’s lives. This includes even at the expense of their own. It is a core instinct‚ born into us to ensure the perpetuation of the species. That sounds very clinical. Love makes it anything but. It makes parenting a transformational‚ holy experience. When you meet… The post Watch: Bone-Chilling Video Captures Evil ‘Lessons’ Hamas Mom Teaches Her Children About Jews appeared first on The Federalist Papers.

A group representing over 200 energy companies that supply natural gas to roughly half of all Americans has sued the Biden administration over new regulations on gas-powered furnaces. The American Gas Association‚ which says it represents “more than 200 energy companies that provide natural gas service to 180 million Americans‚” filed suit Monday along with… The post Biden Admin’s Natural Gas Crackdown Runs Into Legal Challenge: ‘Increased Costs with Little Environmental Gain’ appeared first on The Federalist Papers.

In a bold move Texas Governor Greg Abbott has expanded his controversial strategy of transporting migrants to sanctuary cities‚ this time sending a flight carrying 120 migrants to Chicago‚ as reported by Fox News. This action marks a significant escalation from Abbott’s previous approach of bussing migrants‚ a tactic he initiated in April 2022 to… The post After Chicago’s Mayor Threatens to Impound Migrant Busses‚ Texas Sends a Plane appeared first on The Federalist Papers.

"It made me realize the Biden administration is basically providing backdoor amnesty for anyone who wants to show up at the border," says asylum seeker's attorney