Gardiner's Seychelles frog facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Gardiner's frog |
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Sechellophryne
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gardineri
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The Gardiner's Seychelles frog (Sechellophryne gardineri) is a very small frog that lives only on the Seychelles islands. It is part of a special frog family called Sooglossidae. This tiny frog is named after John Stanley Gardiner, an English scientist who studied animals and the ocean.
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Meet Gardiner's Frog: A Tiny Wonder
Gardiner's frog is one of the smallest frogs on Earth! It grows to be only about 11 millimeters long, which is less than half an inch. When they first hatch, these frogs are just 3 millimeters long. Adult male frogs are usually around 8 millimeters long. This frog is brown and has a dark stripe that runs from its mouth all the way to its legs.
How This Frog Hears
What makes Gardiner's frog truly special is how it hears. Unlike most animals, it doesn't have a middle ear cavity, which is usually needed for hearing. Scientists have discovered that this frog uses its mouth to help it hear! Its mouth cavity acts like a sound amplifier, making sounds louder. Then, the sound vibrations are sent directly to its inner ear. This amazing ability was explained by scientist Jean-François Aubry.
Where Gardiner's Frog Lives and What It Eats
Gardiner's frog lives on land, not in water. It enjoys eating tiny creatures like mites, small fly larvae, ants, and tiny shrimp-like animals called amphipods. You can find this frog only in the higher and middle parts of Mahé and Silhouette Island in the Seychelles.
Most frogs in the Sooglossidae family prefer very high places where the weather is always cool and misty. Gardiner's frog is a bit different because it can live in slightly lower areas too.
Life Cycle and Reproduction
These frogs lay their eggs in small groups on damp ground. Instead of hatching as tadpoles, the eggs hatch directly into tiny, fully formed frogs! This is different from many other frogs that start their lives as tadpoles in water.
Why This Frog Needs Our Help
Even though Gardiner's frog is common in some places, it is listed as an endangered species by the IUCN Red List. This is because it only lives in three main areas, which are split into five smaller groups. If something bad happens in one of these few places, it could greatly harm the entire species.
Different Kinds of Gardiner's Frogs?
Scientists have studied the genes of Gardiner's frogs. They found that the frogs living in different areas might actually be slightly different from each other. Some scientists even think they could be separate species! Because of this, it's important to protect all the different groups of these frogs to make sure they all survive.
