PLoS ONE: Rittmeyer EN, Allison A, Gründler MC, Thompson DK, Austin CC

This tiny Papau New Guinea amphibian is from the smallest known vertebrate species on Earth -- Paedophryne amauensis.

The adult body size for these minute frogs ranges from just seven to eight millimetres. That means the biggest member of the species could sit on a five pence coin without touching the sides.

It beats out Paedocypris progenetica, an Indonesian fish averaging more than eight millimetres long and the previous record holder for world's smallest vertebrate.

Louisiana State University's Chris Austin made the amphibian discovery during a three-month expedition to the island of New Guinea: the world's largest and tallest tropical island.

"It was particularly difficult to locate Paedophryne amauensis due to its diminutive size and the males' high pitched, insect-like mating call," said Austin. "But it's a great find. New Guinea is a hotspot of biodiversity, and everything new we discover there adds another layer to our overall understanding of how biodiversity is generated and maintained."

Austin believes that the frog has evolved to be so small so it can inhabit the leaf litter on the floor of tropical rainforest environments. "These creatures aren't just biological oddities, but instead represent a previously undocumented ecological guild," he explains.

Among the 60,000 vertebrates (creatures with backbones) on the planet, the largest is the blue whale with an average size of more than 25 metres. You'd need to lay out 3,125 Paedophryne amauensis frogs to match the whale's length.


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