{
  "id": 7855318,
  "title": "New Andean Frog Skips Tadpole Stage and Hatches as Tiny Frog",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/new-andean-frog-skips-tadpole-stage-and-hatches-as-tiny-frog",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-16T19:10:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Colombia One",
    "slug": "colombia-one",
    "url": "https://colombiaone.com/2026/09/16/new-andean-frog-skips-tadpole-stage/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A newly discovered Andean frog, Pristimantis marquezi, skips the traditional tadpole stage and emerges as a tiny frog, avoiding the free-living tadpole phase. This unique reproductive strategy, termed direct development, enables certain frog species to thrive in terrestrial habitats. The Ecuadorian frog belongs to the Pristimantis myersi species group, which consists of four new species - P. cantrix, P. carchi, P. levi, and P. marquezi - identified through morphological measurements, male calls, ecological observations, and molecular data. Researchers conducted fieldwork over six years in Ecuador's Carchi Province, discovering the four hidden species. Pristimantis marquezi is only known from a single location in northern Ecuador, making it particularly vulnerable. The study found that Carchi lost over 9,000 hectares of vegetation cover between 1985 and 2022, raising conservation concerns for all four newly described frogs.",
  "summary": "A newly described Andean frog develops inside a terrestrial egg and emerges as a miniature frog, bypassing the free-living tadpole stage. Pristimantis marquezi is one of four new species identified by researchers in Ecuador’s Carchi Province after six years of fieldwork. The researchers used morphological measurements, male advertisement calls, ecological observations, and molecular data to […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}