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| Dwarf Marsupial Frog, Flectonotus fitzgeraldi (Parker, 1933) female with eggs in dorsal pouch. Specimen in the upper photo is from central Trinidad, the lower photo was taken in the Arima Valley of Trinidad's Northern Range. The species may also occur on the Peninsula de Paria, Venezuela. Adult females reach 25 mm, adult males are smaller, reaching about 21 mm in body length. This little frog is unusual in that is calls for a relatively short time at sunset. After the eggs hatch in an advanced stage, the female deposits them in a leaf axial pond. |
Marsupial frogs are found in Costa Rica, Panama, and much of northern South America (on both sides of the Andes), and they occur on the continental islands of Trinidad and Tobago. For many years these frogs were considered members of the family Hylidae, but recent molecular studies have suggested they are a distinct lineage from the true treefrogs that they belong in their own family. Currently there are 2 genera and 57 species in this family. George K. Noble wrote about the marsupial frogs in his 1931 book The Biology of the Amphibia.
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