Nasikabatrachus bhupathi

Nasikabatrachus bhupathi, or Bhupathy's purple frog,[3] is a frog species belonging to the family Sooglossidae. It can be found in the Western Ghats in India and was discovered near the Srivilliputhur Grizzled Giant Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary. The specific epithet honors Subramanian Bhupathy (1963–2014) who had a fatal fall while conducting herpetology field work near Agastya Mala hills on 28 April 2014.[2]

Nasikabatrachus bhupathi
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Nasikabatrachidae
Genus: Nasikabatrachus
Species:
N. bhupathi
Binomial name
Nasikabatrachus bhupathi
Janani et al. 2017[2]

Description

The species has purple skin and blue eyes and lives underground. It differs genetically, morphologically, and acoustically from the closely related Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis.[2] Speciation between the two species is likely caused by the different monsoon seasons on the different sides of the Western Ghats, causing N. sahyadrensis to breed between May and August and N. bhupathi to breed between October and December.[2]

Geophysical implications

Nasikabatrachus bhupathi and Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis have been found to be related to other frogs that live in the Seychelles, which are closer to Africa than to India. This is consistent with the idea that Africa and India were once part of the same ancient supercontinent, called Gondwanaland, which eventually became part of the later supercontinent, Pangaea.[4]

References
  1. "Nasikabatrachus bhupathi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017. This taxon has not yet been assessed for the IUCN Red List, and also is not in the Catalogue of Life.
  2. Janani, S. Jegath; Vasudevan, Karthikeyan; Prendini, Elizabeth; Dutta, Sushil Kumar; Aggarwal, Ramesh K. (13 August 2017). "A new Species of the Genus Nasikabatrachus (Anura, Nasikabatrachidae) from the Eastern Slopes of the Western Ghats, India" (PDF). Alytes, the International Journal of Batrachology. 34 (1–4): 1–19. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  3. Bittel, Jason (24 August 2017). "New Purple Pig-Nose Frog Found in Remote Mountains". National Geographic. Weird & Wild. Washington, DC. Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  4. Perinchery, Aathira (23 August 2017). "'N. bhupathi', a frog with the face of a pig". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
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