Small yellow frog in mud, Santa María, Colombia

- No description given -

comments (3)

John Sullivan

Lion

Man, these Colombia frogs aren't easy! Somewhere there must be an expert in Colombia frogs, but I don't know any unfortunately.

Let's start by narrowing down the frog families in Colombia (from amphibiaweb.org search):
Bufonidae - definitely not a toad
Centrolenidae - definitely not a glass frog
Craugastoridae - Hmm, can't rule this out. amphibiaweb.org only shows a few species. Not impossible that this is Craugastor crassidigitus, based on general shape/size, smallish toe pads, lack of webbing on feet or toes.
Dendrobatidae - definitely not a poison frog
Eleutherodactylidae - only a few species, and none that look especially like yours, so I think we can rule that out
Hemiphractidae - nothing about yours looks reminiscent of this kind of weird family
Hylidae - I think we can rule this out; yours doesn't look at all like a treefrog to me
Leptodactylidae - possibility. I don't see any particular species at a quick glance that look like great matches, but there are some Leptodactylids with similar body plans, and many/most/all have no webbing like yours. However, I think the toe pads on yours, even though they are small, are bigger than on at least most Leptodactylids. So I can't rule this family out but it seems less likely than other candidate families.
Microhylidae - nah, they have a distinctive shape that yours doesn't have
Pipidae - no way, they are all super weird looking
Ranidae - no, just a few species that look like each other and not like yours
Strabomantidae - sadly, can't rule out this gigantic family. Many have large toe pads, but some have smallish toe pads like yours. And Pristimantis comes in a wide variety of body shapes.

In conclusion, there are dozens or hundreds of candidates for this fairly generic terrestrial frog. But I wouldn't be surprised if it were Craugastor crassidigitus, which is widespread and common and certainly similar-looking. For example, check out: http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=0000+0000+0807+0378 Posted 8 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  Thank you for taking the time to do such deep analysis, very impressive. I can only agree how difficult it is. And if it's difficult for you, it's near impossible for me, I just don't know where to even start. The specific recommendation candidate you provide has a surprisingly similar look, shape and texture so my layman's view is to go with that for now. Again, thank you very much for the work, I hope it was not too much trouble. Posted 8 years ago
2. 1. John Sullivan
    
    Lion
    
    No worries. It's fun, though obviously can take significant time! Posted 8 years ago