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The appearance of the Indian purple frog is more like a cross between a hippopotamus, a shrew and a common frog, writes Success in UA.
She has a wide, bloated body, tiny round eyes, and strong limbs. It is also called a pig-nosed frog, because it has a forward-protruding snout.
Purple frog or Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis lives almost all the time underground in the Western Ghats (mountains in India). Despite the fact that its lineage has existed for a long time, since the time of the dinosaurs, this species was discovered only in 2003.
The Western Ghats are a mountain range about 1600 kilometers long that lies in the southwestern part of India. These mountains are even older than the Himalayas, because they were formed when the prehistoric continent of Gondwana broke up, reports expert.in.ua.
"The purple frog's lineage makes it a 'living fossil'—it has thrived and evolved independently of other frog families since the Cretaceous period, at least 66 million years ago. This happened millions of years before the formation of the Australian and Antarctic continents, which separated after the breakup of Gondwana," the message states.
The family Nasikabatrachidae contains only two species: the purple toad and its close relative, which was described in 2017. The strangest thing is that the closest relatives of these frogs live thousands of kilometers on the other side of the Indian Ocean. In particular, the study showed that it is a family of Sooglossidae - a group of frogs that lives 4000 km away in the Seychelles.
Purple frogs spend their lives underground and are good diggers. They use their wedge-shaped skull and strong limbs to burrow into the soil. Thanks to their elongated snout, they can feed on termites, ants, earthworms and other invertebrates.
During the year, they only come out of the ground for a few days to mate.
The tadpoles of the purple frog are eaten by the indigenous people of southwestern India, because they believe that they have medicinal properties. Children are sometimes made to wear amulets made of frogs, believing that this will help them to reduce their fear of storms in such a very rainy region.
“Tadpoles, available only before the heavy rains every year, are considered a local delicacy. This practice, as well as cutting down forests in the frog's habitat for commercial purposes, are the main threats to this already endangered and little-studied species," the article emphasized.
The publication concluded that there are not many breeding places for the purple frog, and all of them are located outside nature conservation areas. Although population estimates are not available, local communities acknowledge that it was higher a few decades ago, but is likely declining rapidly.
