New Frog Species Named After ‘Family Guy’ Creator

A new species of frog has been described in the Ecuadorian Andes. Hyloscirtus sethmacfarlani has been named in honour of U.S film and television creator, Seth Macfarlane, the creator of family guy and long-time supporter of ‘The Rainforest Trust’. The polka-dot patterned frog is a toxic species discovered by Darwin Recalde, a field technician of the EcoMinga Foundation. So far, four specimens have been found, all within just a few square meters of one another. “This is a very rare frog found only at high elevations in a remote part of our Machay Reserve, so it took us four years to find enough individuals to make a thorough description of it” writes Lou Jost, President of The EcoMinga Foundation in a blog post.

The Machay Reserve sits on a ridgeline of the Cerro Mayodormo, Ecuador. This secluded habitat is likely to harbour more unique species and The Rainforest Trust is continuing its work identifying new species in the region.

Researchers are hoping to analyse the toxicity of the new species over the coming months. Initially, the researchers were not sure whether the frog’s bright patterns was ‘aposematic colouring’ alluding to its high toxicity, or ‘aposematic mimicry’, where the frog imitates other highly toxic species in the region. However, they soon found out as the blog post continues: “Darwin and Fausto (Tito) Recalde discovered [the toxicity] when they caught and handled the adult female. Their hands and fingers, and even Darwin’s elbows, started to itch and tingle, and the pain continued even several hours after they had put the frog down. The juveniles are bright yellow and they also exude an unpleasant substance from their skin.”

The researchers had expected that the new species likely diverged from related species in the Pleistocene inter-glacial warm periods. During this time, many species moved higher up the mountains to cooler temperatures, creating isolated populations which eventually evolved distinct characteristics. What they actually found was far more interesting.

Lou continues: “[We can say] with high confidence, this species diverged from its relatives more than five million years ago; our best estimate is a divergence time of nine million years +/- four million years. This is even older than the last major uplift of the Ecuadorian Andes. To put this in perspective, that is slightly more than the divergence time between humans and chimps. This is a very distinctive species.”

Adult female Hyloscirtus sethmacfarlanei photographed on Cerro Mayordomo. Photo: Lou Jost/EcoMinga