In his second expedition to South America, Darwin discovered many new species of animals and plants. The field observations obtained throughout this 5-year expedition provided the intellectual framework for the maturation of his ideas on evolution. It also introduced the world to a tiny (2-3 cm in length) frog known as Darwin’s frog. The group includes the northern (Rhinoderma rufum) and the southern (Rhinoderma darwinii) species, which inhabit the central and southern forests of Chile (and adjacent areas of Argentina), respectively. As in many other amphibians, fecundation is external. However, Darwin’s frogs do not leave the fecundated eggs on the ground and exposed to environmental insults and predators. The males scoop them with their mouths and incubate them in their vocal sac. The dedicated dads feed their offspring after the eggs hatch, producing secretions analogous to milk that allow the tadpoles to grow in a protected environment, sometimes until they have fully developed into froglets. When the young are mature enough to fend for themselves, the male frog literally spits them out. You can see a short video describing this amazing reproductive strategy following this link. This behavior, generally known as neomelia, allows the male ‘surrogates’ to care for the eggs and then the young, maximizing survival throughout the critical tadpole stage. Unfortunately, deforestation in the regions inhabited by these frogs has resulted in vast habitat losses, leaving Darwin’s frogs in precarious conditions. The last sight of a northern Darwin frog was reported in 1980, leading researchers to suspect that this particular species went extinct years ago. The species has been tagged as ‘possibly extinct’. The southern species, R. darwinii, which has traditionally occupied a much larger region, has been able to survive, but population numbers have declined dramatically.
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