Comments on: World's smallest known vertebrate

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:16:00 +0000

Surely they’ve located a smaller backbone? I can think of a certain former MA governor in the news lately….

By: piminnowcheez

piminnowcheez — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:29:00 +0000

I’m thinking it must be the smallest *terrestrial* vertebrate, no? Surely there are smaller fish?

By: jackie31337

jackie31337 — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:09:00 +0000

In keeping with the principle that anything diminutive is automatically cute, my first thought on seeing this frog was “squeeeeeeeee!”

By: Rich Keller

Rich Keller — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:57:00 +0000

I misread it as amanuensis, originally.
Okay, the name makes sense now. I was wondering how something so diminutive could take short hand. I thought maybe they laid their eggs in the steno pool.

By: awjt

awjt — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:56:00 +0000

That little froggy is suuuuuper cute!!~~!! LIKE!!!

By: habbi1974

habbi1974 — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:39:00 +0000

animals smaller than 5mm were in noah’s ark, just not listed

By: sean

sean — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:25:00 +0000

You can’t trust scientists, what with all the global warming hokum. Maybe they made a giant coin to make a normal frog look tiny. Plus I don’t recall this frog being mentioned in the bible.

By: Beanolini

Beanolini — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:43:00 +0000

How small are the babies

Apparently, related species hatch at 2.5mm length (they have no free-swimming tadpole stage). Incidentally, it's 'amauensis' (after the village of Amau), not 'amanuensis' as above- that means something quite different.

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:13:00 +0000

Those little froggies are REALLY quick. Even better, they can stop on a dime!

By: Romeo Vitelli

Romeo Vitelli — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:09:00 +0000

It may be small but it has backbone. So watch your step!

By: dhelling

dhelling — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:50:00 +0000

The comment about smallest adult above is a good one. Here’s a pic I took of a somewhat smaller frog (I would assume a juvenile) in a flower that I noticed in a Buddhist monastery in Hue Vietnam. I thought it was a bug until it started hopping around and stood still just long enough for the photo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhelling01/561616532/

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:15:00 +0000

That vertebrate must have small vertebrae.

By: william beaty

william beaty — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:29:00 +0000

Smallest adult. How small are the babies at the point when they’ve absorbed their tails?

Instead of springtime hoards of baby toads sweeping across towns in upstate NY, you’d have a sort of black powder which sweeps across …a dollar bill.

By: Nagurski

Nagurski — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:08:00 +0000

I thought spring peepers were tiny. This is a triumph of tinosity.

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:52:00 +0000

I think there may be a smaller vertebrate. This little fish might be longer than the frog, but I bet it weighs less.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2006/jan/news_7501.html

By: raresaturn

raresaturn — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:21:00 +0000

wow that’s a huge coin!

By: Vnend

Vnend — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:15:00 +0000

Wow, that’s tiny.

My father-in-law will be delighted but envious.

By: Michael Sheehan

Michael Sheehan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:02:00 +0000

A great story. The exasperated leaf-grabbing is wonderful.