WikiDwarf at 12:25, 22 April 2021

2021-04-22T12:25:11Z

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{{Speciesbox
|image =
|image_caption =
|status = NE
|status_system = IUCN3.1
|status_ref = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite web |url=http://col.iucnredlist.org/consult_catalogue_of_life/Nasikabatrachus%20bhupathi |title=Nasikabatrachus bhupathi |year=2017 |website=IUCN Red List of Threatened Species |access-date=29 September 2017 |quote=This taxon has not yet been assessed for the IUCN Red List, and also is not in the Catalogue of Life. |archive-date=29 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929231728/http://col.iucnredlist.org/consult_catalogue_of_life/Nasikabatrachus%20bhupathi |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|genus = Nasikabatrachus
|species = bhupathi
|authority = Janani et al. 2017<ref name=Janani>{{cite journal |last1=Janani |first1=S. Jegath |last2=Vasudevan |first2=Karthikeyan |last3=Prendini |first3=Elizabeth |last4=Dutta |first4=Sushil Kumar |last5=Aggarwal |first5=Ramesh K. |date=13 August 2017 |title=A new Species of the Genus Nasikabatrachus (Anura, Nasikabatrachidae) from the Eastern Slopes of the Western Ghats, India |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319203867 |access-date=30 August 2017 |format=PDF |journal=Alytes, the International Journal of Batrachology |publication-date=13 August 2017 |volume=34 |issue=1–4 |pages=1–19 }}</ref>
}}
'''Bhupathy's purple frog''' (''Nasikabatrachus bhupathi'') is a frog species belonging to the family Sooglossidae. lives in the [[Ghats|Western Ghat mountains]] in [[India]]. It is a purple cave frog that lives underground almost all the time.<ref name=NatGeo>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/purple-frog-new-species-discovery-india-monsoon/ |title=New Purple Pig-Nose Frog Found in Remote Mountains |last=Bittel |first=Jason |work=National Geographic |series=Weird & Wild |location=Washington, DC |date=2017-08-24 }}</ref>
<ref name="Hindu">{{cite web|title= 'N. bhupathi', a frog with the face of a pig|url = http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/introducing-n-bhupathi-a-frog-with-the-face-of-a-pig/article19541223.ece|author = Aathira Perinchery|publisher = The Hindu|date = August 23, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Alytes">{{cite web|url=http://www.amphibiaweb.org/refs/pdfs/Nasikabatrachus_Alytes-34-1-19.pdf|title=A new species of the genus ''Nasikabatrachus'' (Anura, Nasikabatrachidae) from the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats, India|author=S. Jegath Janani, Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Elizabeth Prendini, Sushil Kumar Dutta, Ramesh K. Aggarwa|publisher=Alytes|date=July 31, 2017}}</ref>

==Bodies==
Many species of frog dig underground a little, but Bhupathy's purple frogs live undergound almost all the time. They have front limbs shaped like shovels for digging and long noses so they can stick their tongues aboveground and lick the surface to catch ants to eat. They do not have shoot-and-pull-back tongues like other frogs.<ref name="NatGeo"/>

Adult frogs have purple skins and a thin blue ring around each eye.

The frog has one close relative, the [[purple frog]], ''N. sahyadrensis'', which was first found in the Western Ghats in 2003.

[[File:Nasikabatrachus_sahyadrensis_Davidraju_IMG_3616.jpg|thumb|right|Bhupathy's purple frog looks like its close relative ''N. sahyadrensis'' (shown) but it has light purple skin and a blue ring around its eye.]]

==Life cycle==
The [[tadpoles]] do not swim in ponds or streams. Instead, they grab the stones behind waterfalls, where they spend six months eating [[algae]].<ref name="NatGeo"/> Young frogs, called [[imagos]], have brown skin. They turn purple when they are adults.<ref name="Alytes"/>

Adult frogs only come aboveground when the rain falls at the beginning of the northeast<ref name="Alytes"/> [[monsoon]] season, when they find mates.

==Discovery==
Scientists from [[Hyderabad]]'s Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology discovered the frog in 2017. They named the frog after scientist Dr. Subramaniam Bhupathy, who died in the Western Ghat Mountains in 2014.<ref name="NatGeo"/> They wrote about ''N. bhupathi'' in ''Alytes'', the official magazine of the International Society for the Study and Conservation of Amphibians. They found ''N. bhupathi'' by listening for frog sounds coming up from underground.<ref name="Alytes"/>

"This frog lineage is very ancient, and has a very low diversity, so this finding is very special and unusual," said Elizabeth Prendini of the [[American Museum of Natural History]], who helped write the scientific paper about the discovery.<ref name="NatGeo"/>

The scientists did not to say exactly where they found the sample frogs because it was on private property.<ref name="Alytes"/>

This discovery was paid for by the Indian government in a project to sample the [[DNA]] of every frog in the country.<ref name="NatGeo"/>

==Other ideas==
Some scientists said that because ''N. bhupathy'', which lives in India, has close relatives in the [[Seychelles]], which are close to [[Africa]], it is likely that the [[Gondwanaland]] [[continental drift|idea of why the continents are where they are]] is right. This idea says that Africa and India used to be one large continent, called Gondwanaland.<ref name="Hindu"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q37785702}}

[[Category:Frogs]]
[[Category:India]]
[[Category:Animals of Asia]]

Bhupathy's purple frog - Revision history

WikiDwarf at 12:25, 22 April 2021