‘Honking’ creature with ‘long’ tongue found lurking in rainforest. It’s a new species
Walking through a dark rainforest in Papua New Guinea, scientists heard a “honking” sound coming from the treetops.
What was that sound? Better yet, what was making that sound?
They followed the call to its source and found a “slender” creature with a “long” tongue. It turned out to be a new species.
A team of researchers hiked into the lowland rainforest of Gulf Province in 2016 in search of wildlife, according to a study published March 14 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. The province was known for its “rich” variety of frogs and toads, but some areas hadn’t been as well-studied. The team hoped to change that.
During nighttime hikes, researchers heard a “series of harsh honking notes,” the study said. Intrigued, they tracked the calls to some frogs perched “high in the forest canopy” and managed to capture one.
Researchers took a closer look at the “honking” frog and soon realized they’d discovered a new species: Oreophryne purari, or the Purari narrow-mouthed frog.
The Purari narrow-mouthed frog is considered “medium-sized,” reaching about 1 inch in length, the study said. It has a “slender” body with “short” legs and mostly “smooth” skin. Its “short” head has a “slightly” protruding snout, “long” tongue and multicolored eyes.
Photos show the blotchy brown coloring of the new species.
Seen from above, the frog is mostly copper brown with some lighter patches. Its eyes look almost like a sunset with burnt red, orange and yellow hues. Seen from below, the frog has a pale belly with some darker blue-purple shades.
Purari narrow-mouthed frogs live in lowland rainforests and seem to “occur at low densities,” the study said. Male frogs “called at night from perches” about 16 feet off the ground and were usually spread out from each other but “were sometimes ‘clumped’ within a small area.”
No female frogs were found, and much about the new species’ remains unknown.
Researchers said they named the new species after the Purari River Basin where it was first discovered and, so far, the only region where it has been found “with certainty.” The river basin sits within Gulf Province along the southern coast of Papua New Guinea, an island country north of Australia.
The new species was identified by its call, skeleton, toes, webbing and other subtle physical features, the study said. Researchers did not provide a DNA analysis of the new species.
The research team included Rainer Günther, Elizah Nagombi and Stephen Richards. The team also discovered a second new species of narrow-mouthed frog.
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 6:08 AM with the headline "‘Honking’ creature with ‘long’ tongue found lurking in rainforest. It’s a new species."
