Chilean researchers rediscover species of 'ghost' frog that was found decades ago

This is the year of remarkable discoveries. RecentlyEgypt discovered27 coffins buried 2,500 years agoand Siberian scientists discovered 39,000-year-old cave bear's remains.

Now, Chilean scientists have added to the list by rediscovering aspecies of frog which was last seen more than 80 years ago.

This has raised the topic of the discovery made byAmerican researcher and collector Frank Gregory Hall who had discovered the species in 1935 which was named asHall’s water frog. He had discovered the speciesin a tiny hot spring oasis near Ollagüe in Chile’s Atacama desert.

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This discovery has pointed that the ghost species is the same as the one discovered by Hall.

“We asked the museum where Hall’s (discovery) is registered. ... They sent us photographs of the larvae, photographs, comparisons, drawings,” said César Cuevas, a researcher with the Catholic University of Temuco.

Researchers continue to work to establish the frog’s taxanomic ties to other species found in the region in order to determine how different, and therefore, how rare, it really is, Cuevas said.

The main aim of the scientists is to protect its habitat as the increasing mining and tourism industry can face a threat to this aquatic species. “These animals are strictly aquatic. In just five minutes out of the water, they die,” Cuevas said.

The research was published in the journal Zootaxa.