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Darwin frog

Today I bring you another amphibian unique in the world, amphibians are very similar to reptiles only in the case of these their habitat is water and differs a little from reptiles due to their metamorphosis and the ability to breathe through the skin and have developed lungs. Today we will talk about the Darwin frog. Come with me to learn more about this incredible amphibian.

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Its scientific name is Rhinoderma darwinii, it is a very small frog, this amphibian is endemic to South America and lives between temperate zones of Argentina and Chile, being the forests of low temperatures the ideal place for the development of this species. Its size does not exceed 3 centimeters, among its main features we find that its head is triangular with a small extension of its nose in tubular form, its color ranges from dark brown to light tones, and its general appearance is very similar to a leaf, which helps this amphibian in the subject of camouflage because it resembles much of the first floor of forests confusing everyone among nature.

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This amphibian hunts and is active during the day has the particularity of emitting sounds very similar to those of a bird. Another of the most distinctive features of this species is part of its incubation system which is called neomelia, the female after laying eggs passing 15 days after being fertilized are swallowed by the male who stores them in a place inside his body called vocal sac, where the eggs comply with part of the metamorphosis, hatching, pass to a larval state where they are developing for a period of 2 months until they are ready to go out to the outside world to start living by their own means.

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Its long extremities help it to develop in its habitat without any kind of problem, there is a key in its transit, its legs do not have the common shape of the other frogs, with palms specialized in the perfect grip of leaves and trunks, in its hind legs it has 3 palms of up to 5 fingers that can have a common frog, this is with the purpose of being able to transit through the floor of the forest where they spend a great part of their life.

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Some develop another coloration as green, everything depends on the environment where it is, if the Darwin frog is in a place where there is green foliage then the frog develops green and if the frog lives among the foliage of dry leaves then the frog will present shades from light brown to dark brown.

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This small frog with green or dry leaf appearance, is under threat of extinction due to multiple problems, one of them is the deforestation of its habitat for monoculture planting, another problem is the disease that is caused by chemicals used in monocultures for fertilizer, which has generated important mutations in the frog, until now we do not know the impact of these mutations in the not too distant future because it could mean a change in its morphology, or worse, its complete disappearance.

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It is currently classified as a vulnerable species according to IUCN, while in Chile the species classification regulation has it on the red list as an endangered species.

The main monocultures that have affected the Darwin frog are pine and eucalyptus species for the forestry and cosmetics industries.