Creature with ‘horned' eyelids discovered on China mountain. It's a new species
Researchers on an expedition to survey amphibians in southern China encountered several unfamiliar frogs with 'horned' eyelids on a mountain peak.
Five males and three females were collected for analysis and later revealed to be members of a new species, according to a study published June 13 in the peer-reviewed journal Herpetozoa.
Boulenophrys yezhongensis, also called the Yezhong horned toad, was discovered in Yezhong Nature Reserve and can only be found on 'a single peak within the Wumeng Mountain Range,' according to researchers.
The new species is described as having a 'shield-like' snout that sticks out beyond its lower jaw, 'horn-like' growths on the upper eyelids, slender limbs, rough wart-covered skin and 'copper-brown' irises, according to the study.
The existence of the Yezhong horned toad is likely the result of isolation-driven speciation, according to the study. This process can happen when members of one species are geographically separated and isolated from the rest of the group and develop into a new species.
The Yezhong horned toad is separated from the nearest related populations by just over 7 miles of 'valleys crossed by the deeply incised Beipan River,' researchers said.
No populations of the new species were found in 'adjacent low-elevation regions,' researchers said.
According to the study, the Yezhong horned toad lives roughly 2,600 feet higher in elevation than the nearest related species. This elevation difference also brings an average temperature difference of about 40 degrees.
The Yezhong horned toad has adapted to survive at high elevations in a narrow range of cold temperatures, which researchers said is an 'extinction risk' in tropical mountain ecosystems that may be impacted by climate change.
Researchers recommended the new species be listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List considering its extremely limited distribution and single known location.
Yezhong Nature Reserve is in Shuicheng County in China's Guizhou Province.
The research team included Jing Liu, Chao-Bo Feng, Tuo Shen, Shi-Ze Li, Yanlin Cheng, Gang Wei, Bin Wang and Haijun Su.
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