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Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis is a frog species belonging to the family Sooglossidae. It can be found in the Western Ghats in India. Common names for this species are Purple Frog or Pignose Frog. It was discovered in October 2003 and was found to be unique for the geographic region.
How Cute
In the verdant countryside of western India along the Arabian Sea, villagers digging a well in a cardamom plantation five years ago were astonished to spot a squat, bulbous purple frog sitting immobile nearly seven feet down in the mud.
It has a squat body, somewhat rounded compared to other more dorsoventrally-flattened frogs. Its arms and legs splay out in the standard anuran body form. Compared to other frogs, N. sahyadrensis has a small head and a rather peculiar, pointed snout. Adults are usually dark purple in color.
It turned out, the frog was a member of a totally unknown species of a totally unknown genus of a totally unknown family of frogs -- until now an undiscovered member of a wider tribe of "advanced frogs" that are known to number more than 4,800 species.
The family appears to date back more than 200 million years to a time when Africa and India were joined in a single vast supercontinent now called Gondwanaland. By 150 million years ago that continent had broken up into chunks of land masses that included Madagascar, the Seychelles, and the western Ghats of India.
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