THE SMALLEST VERTEBRATE IN THE WORLD?

At an average of 7.7 millimeters long, the newfound Paedophryne amauensis is a hair smaller than the previous record holder, the Southeast Asian fish species Paedocypris progenetica, whose females measure about 7.9 millimeters.

During recent field surveys in southern Papua New Guinea, scientists found P. amauensis and  another new species of tiny frog, Paedophryne swiftorum, which measures about 8.6 millimeters,This frog is so small it fits on a coin of 10 cents.

Indeed, the frogs likely evolved their tiny sizes to eat tiny invertebrates, such as mites, that are ignored by bigger predators, said study co-author Christopher Austin, a bPaedophryne amauensis is a species of frog from Papua New Guinea discovered in August 2009 and formally described in January 2012. At 7.7 mm (0.30 in) in length, it is considered the world's smallest known vertebrate.

The newly described frog species was listed in the Top 10 New Species 2013 by the International Institute for Species Exploration for discoveries made during 2012. The list was announced on 22 May 2013
The frog species was discovered in August 2009 by Louisiana State University herpetologist Christopher Austin and his PhD student Eric Rittmeyer while on an expedition to explore the biodiversity of Papua New Guinea. The new species was found near Amau village in the Central Province, from which its specific name is derived. The discovery was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal in January 2012.
Because the frogs have calls that resemble those made by insects and are camouflaged among leaves on the forest floor, were difficult to detect. While recording nocturnal frog calls in the forest, Austin rittember used triangulation to identify the source of an unknown animal and discovered the frogs by scooping up handfuls of leaf litter and putting it into plastic bags where they spotted the tiny frog hopping around.
This time they have returned from an expedition of three months on the island of Australasia with two new species of tiny frogs belonging to the same genus.. One is the vertebrate animal , the smallest animal bones is known.

The scientific description of the species is published in the latest issue of the journal,. The frog lives in soil, in wet litter under the tropical forest.

On the importance of the discovery, the child's father, Dr. Austin, has said: "New Guinea is a hotspot of biodiversity and everything new that we discovered adds another layer to our overall understanding of how biodiversity is generated and maintained ".

In that sense, the father of the child said: "The size limits that are vertebrates are of great interest to biologists because little is known about the functional limitations caused by extreme body size, whether large or small."

More than 60,000 vertebrates in the world and the largest of them are known is the blue whale, with more than 25 meters. The lesser known to date was a fish located in Indonesia that is between 7.9 and 10 millimeters.