What is the Smallest Frog?


Gold Frog The smallest frog in the Southern Hemisphere is the Gold Frog, or Brazilian Psyllophryne Didactyla.
Adult Gold Frogs measure grow to only 9.8 millimetres in body length (with legs drawn in). That's about one centimeter or about 3/8 of an inch!
The image on the left is the Gold Frog, courtesy of The Somewhat Amusing World of Frogs page (site now gone).

Eleutherodactylus iberia Equally small is the smallest frog in the Northern Hemisphere, only recently discovered (1996) in Monte Iberia, Cuba. It doesn't have a common name yet, but its scientific name is Eleutherodactylus iberia.
On the right is a picture of the Eleutherodactylus iberia frog, sitting on a cuban coin so you can see how teeny it is! Photo by M. Lammertink.

For more information about the newest found teeny frog, see: Biotic Surveys Program Uncovers Smallest Frog

poison frog Also very small are poison frogs. These can measure less than half an inch (1 cm) long, even when they're fully grown.


This image courtesy of Philip Greenspun and his Costa Rica: a Web Travel Review feature.
Click on it to see it full sized.


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