Found this lil critter last night. He is fairly rare and the smallest frog (or vertebrate of any kind) in the United States.

For you pixel peepers, attached is a thumbnail of the original photo, unedited, except for being re-sized from 4000x3000 to 2000x1500.

Enjoy!




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I hope you let him keep his penny.

I have been enjoying all of your recent nature posts (butterflies and spiders and frogs, oh my!). Do keep them coming.

-Eric

Hey Eric;

Glad to see someone just enjoys nature photography

Here is one of a Barking Treefrog I also caught last night. You know what's funny? I just realized that this is the largest treefrog in FL. This means I caught both the smallest, as well as the largest, treefrogs I could have caught--all in one night

I don't know if this means I am going to turn into a prince (I doubt it), but it was still fun catching them--and photographing them too

Jack




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Haven't Cuban Tree Frogs been found in Florida? IIRC, they're the largest tree frog species in North America, up to 13 or 14 cm. Funny that Cuba also has Eleutherodactylus iberia, which at about 1cm long ties for the smallest frog in the world.

Mike.

True, I should have said largest "native" species.

Sady, the Cuban treefrog not only has invaded south Florida, but it it is eating and replacing our native species.




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cool shots of interesting wildlife.

FWIW however the smallest vertebrate in North America is the Least Killie Fish Heterandria formosa which is also common in Florida. The other claim to fame with this fish is that is one of the smallest animals on earth to bear live young, and the males have by far the largest reproductive organ relative to over all body size of any animal

Here are a couple more frog photos I was able to get recently

Enjoy!




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Great frog shots.

We have some tiny frogs here (or at least near Canberra when I lived down south) which were Crinea spp, not sure of the full name, they live under stones and things and are tiny and brown coloured, a bit like the small one you pictured but without such pronounced eye ridges (from memory).

We'd turn something over at the farm and away they'd go, scores of them.

From your photos I think I'm finally beginning to learn how to identify some of these strange critters. If it's facing left, it's a "squirrel", and if it's facing right, it's a "barking".

Or rather, if the student is facing backwards he needs to face himself in the right direction so he can see straight

First of all, the Barking Treefrog is twice the size of the Squirrel Treefrog (which you can't tell from the photos). However, second, an alert observer would notice that the tympanum (eardrum) of the Barking Treefrog is solid green, while (or is it cooler here on this forum to say the more pretentious "whilst"?) the tympanum of the Squirrel Treefrog is solid brown. Third, the side markings of the Barking Treefrog are brown flecked with white, whilst the side markings of the Squirrel Treefrog are an off-yellow. And finally, the Barking Treefrog has faint spots on his back whilst the Squirrel Treefrog does not.

Thus endeth the lesson on how to look more carefully at the specimens before we cry foul

Jack




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Hey, if you get the chance, take a couple of shots to share




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