New "Flying" Frog Species Has Amazing Feet (Pictures)

Jodi Rowley

In Vietnam, researches recently conducted an extensive study on a newly discovered "flying" frog.  The frog, dubbed Helen's flying frog, is named after discoverer Jodi Rowley's mother.   Jodi, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney, is the lead author of the new study.

Jodi Rowley

Currently, scientists have identified 80 species of flying frogs.  The unique creatures have the ability to "parachute" from tree to tree due to special aerodynamic feet and unique shape.  Helen's flying frog is "one of the most flying frogs of the flying frogs," Rowley said, "in that it's got huge hands and feet that are webbed all the way to the toepad." 

The new flying frog study was published in December 2012 in the Journal of Herpetology.  Original article was posted here.

New Species of Giant Crayfish Found in Tennessee

Reuters

Biologists Chris Taylor from the University of Illinois and Guenter Schuster of Eastern Kentucky have recently discovered a new species of crayfish (commonly called crawdads or crawfish) in Tennessee.  The uniqueness of the species comes from the size of the creatures - about twice as big as other crayfish in the area. According to the Reuters article,

"This isn't a crayfish that someone would have picked up and just said, 'Oh, it's another crayfish,' and put it back," said University of Illinois aquatic biologist Chris Taylor, one of the researchers.

"You would have recognized it as something really, really different and you would have saved it," Taylor added in a statement.

The new species, Barbicambarus simmonsi, is about 12 cm (5 inches) long and most specimens are recovered under large rocks in deep areas on creeks. Read more here.