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A new species of frog has been discovered whose ancestors hopped around the feet of the dinosaurs.
Scientists have described the bright purple burrowing frog, resembling a fat plum with a white snout, as a "living fossil".
It was found in the Western Ghats hills of Kerala, southern India, a region known to be a "hotspot" of biodiversity.
DNA analysis showed that the amphibian, Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, belonged not only to a previously unknown species but a whole new family of frogs.
A total of 29 frog families are known, encompassing more than 4,800 species.
The nearest living relatives of N. sahyadrensis are the sooglossids, a small group of frogs found only in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Both have roots stretching back to the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex walked the Earth.
The frog was described in the journal Nature today by researchers Franky Bossuyt and SD Biju, from the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.
They wrote: "Our discovery discloses a lineage that may have been more diverse on Indo-Madagascar in the Cretaceous period, but now only comprises four species on the Seychelles and a sole survivor in India."
Scientists have described the bright purple burrowing frog, resembling a fat plum with a white snout, as a "living fossil".
It was found in the Western Ghats hills of Kerala, southern India, a region known to be a "hotspot" of biodiversity.
DNA analysis showed that the amphibian, Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, belonged not only to a previously unknown species but a whole new family of frogs.
A total of 29 frog families are known, encompassing more than 4,800 species.
The nearest living relatives of N. sahyadrensis are the sooglossids, a small group of frogs found only in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Both have roots stretching back to the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex walked the Earth.
The frog was described in the journal Nature today by researchers Franky Bossuyt and SD Biju, from the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.
They wrote: "Our discovery discloses a lineage that may have been more diverse on Indo-Madagascar in the Cretaceous period, but now only comprises four species on the Seychelles and a sole survivor in India."