According to the research published in The Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Scientists have found a new species of frog in Ecuador which changes its skin text from smooth to spiny. This is the first vertebrate discovered with such trait.
This ability which is seen in the mutable species of rain frog is generally seen in invertebrates like octopus.
The new species frog is named as mutable rainfrog, or Pristimantis mutabilis.
It was in 2009 the researches could find another frog with the same features after its first sight in 2006 nearly after three years.
Katherine Krynak, a biologist at Case Western Reserve University said “We took a specimen back to the house in a cup to photograph it, and when we looked in the morning, we thought we had grabbed the wrong frog, we put the frog back in the cup with some moss, and soon, it had the spines again.”
Around moss the frog sprouts tiny spikes and when away from the moss the spikes rapidly recede and the frog’s skin turns smooth. The spiny texture is typically for camouflage.
Scientist discovered that the related species of the frog could change its skin texture in a similar way.
But they are quizzed by the thought that how the trait evolved in these frogs.
Dr. Krynak said, “Either these two different species from two different clades evolved the same trait, or all species had it and then lost the trait, or other species in this clade do this, too, and it’s just never been documented.”