A newly discovered species of glass frog found in Costa Rica is making headlines all across the world as it bears a striking resemblance to everyone’s favorite muppet: Kermit the Frog. Discovered on the Caribbean coastline of Costa Rica, Hyalinobatrachium dianae is the first new glass frog species discovered in Costa Rica since 1973.
Biologists and herpetologists Brian Kubicki, Stanley Salazar, and Robert Puschendorf published their incredible findings of the Kermit-esque glass frog (a PDF can be found here) and just like that the world began to bug out over this awesome discovery. The common characteristics of a glass frog include the internal organs of the frog being visible due to translucent skin.
The scientists who found the new species first shared photos and a description of their findings on the website Cramphibian:
The authors (Brian Kubicki, Stanley Salazar, and Robert Puschendorf) distinguished H. dianae from other glassfrogs due to its unique combination of morphological characteristics, advertisement call, and genetic distance. This new species was described from six specimens collected at three different sites along the Caribbean slopes of Costa Rica between 400 to 900 meters above sea level. Hyalinobatrachium dianae was named in honor of the senior author’s mother Janet Diane Kubicki.
A real-life Kermit the Frog was discovered in Costa Rica >> http://t.co/qO2f4ZTKUY pic.twitter.com/twPZMmqhCo
— Discovery (@Discovery) April 21, 2015
Newly discovered glass frog has transparent belly and looks like Kermit http://t.co/0nPT9jzoX4 pic.twitter.com/1WwuhcDCNZ
— CNET (@CNET) April 21, 2015
As I said before, people are freaking over over this new species of glass frog that highly resembles Kermit the Frog. News of this discovery has already been picked up by Mashable, Unilad, The Tico Times of Costa Rica, CBS News, and USA Today (to just name a few).
This ‘life imitating art’ or vice versa frog is basically a dream come true for every person who was ever touched by The Muppets. Methinks that while this is an incredible discovery, and this Kermit the Frog brofrog is pretty righteous, we’re about to see a spike in the poaching of frogs from Costa Rica as people swarm to the Caribbean countryside to try and steal these up to keep as pets. Why? Because people are jerks. Sadly, unlike your Kermit the Frog, this new glass frog is not large enough to diddle pigs, so nobody should attempt cross-species pollination between the two…
As for the existence of this new species of frog, Kermit approves: