New Species Photos: Slug-Sucking Snake, Mini-Gecko, More

January 21, 2010 4:02 AM

A see-through frog and a gecko the size of a pencil eraser are among rare and new species spotted in Ecuador.
posted by h0p3y (39 comments total)

My favorite is the lungless salamander. Makes me wish I still dropped acid: "d000000d...I'm breathing through my skiiiiiiiiinnnnn!"
posted by NoMich at 4:35 AM on January 21, 2010

Wow. I don't know why I bother subscribing to National Geographic, someone always posts the cool bits before it arrives.

Then again, at least the printed version doesn't make you turn the page three hundred times when you want to go back a page...
posted by Acey at 4:41 AM on January 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

I'll take 3 gross of those geckos.
posted by DU at 4:41 AM on January 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

It feels me with a sense of happiness and hope that there are living creatures still left to discover.
posted by gomichild at 4:55 AM on January 21, 2010 [5 favorites]

Ecuadorable.
posted by Elmore at 4:57 AM on January 21, 2010 [8 favorites]

This:

"All of these things take a lot of time to find, and if we don't get to work and put in a lot of hours we're going to miss ever seeing a lot of these little things."

is largely because of dumbassery like this:

A tiny Indonesian lizard has become big business for impoverished villagers in Indonesia, where growing Asian demand for reptile-based traditional medicines has driven a boom in gecko farming.

How, in 2010, can there be growing demand for eye of newt and toe of frog?
posted by pracowity at 5:09 AM on January 21, 2010 [6 favorites]

The site keeps going back a page for some reason. Is there some reason (Javascript?) that it would tell my browser to come back to MeFi?
posted by grubi at 5:13 AM on January 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

It feels me with a sense of happiness and hope that there are living creatures still left to discover.

Are you kidding? MOST of them are still left to discover.

Taxonomists have identified less than two million distinct species, mostly mammals and birds. But it's estimated that the number of undiscovered species—primarily fish, fungi, insects, and microbes—ranges from ten million to more than one hundred million.
posted by three blind mice at 5:15 AM on January 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

"...a gecko the size of a pencil eraser..."

He sells Hot Wheels insurance.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 5:32 AM on January 21, 2010 [24 favorites]

It's really great that we discovered them before they're extinct.
posted by rainy at 5:52 AM on January 21, 2010

If, as they claim, you can see the beating heart through the skin, then they really should show some video.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:55 AM on January 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Someone tell Karl Pilkington that a new frog came out.
posted by jimmythefish at 5:59 AM on January 21, 2010

The site keeps going back a page for some reason.

Was doing that for me as well. I used the command click to open it in a new tab and it is one freaky frog.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:07 AM on January 21, 2010

Here's another clear picture of the glass frog. I wouldn't mind having a few of those bad boys and girls, and 100 pencil-eraser-sized Geckos to keep them company. With Geckos that size, you could keep enough so that eventually it is agreed that you are their...God. Mwahaha!

One might also use them to season last-minute sauces or pepper them breaded & fried over shredded cabbage. Nome sane?
posted by unwordy at 6:09 AM on January 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

How, in 2010, can there be growing demand for eye of newt and toe of frog?

There is no limit to what men will buy if you tell them it will increase the size of their wang.

Seriously. No limit at all.
posted by aramaic at 6:11 AM on January 21, 2010

Oh, now we know why DU wants so many of these things.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:17 AM on January 21, 2010

I saw these pictures of reptiles, and they were all drying up and dying..Nobody cares..Reptiles (and amphibians) are dying!
posted by gorgor_balabala at 6:25 AM on January 21, 2010

Great. Now I'm going to have "Heart of Glass" stuck in my head all day.
posted by Kimothy at 6:26 AM on January 21, 2010

If I saw one of those pencil-head lizards I'd have to tell it to fuck off. For being too ridiculous.

Go eat some neutrons.
posted by Anything at 6:27 AM on January 21, 2010

That see-through frog should make high school biology classes easier...
posted by starman at 6:51 AM on January 21, 2010

Once I saw a frog
Transparent as gas
Geographic said
That it was a glass
[boomba boomba boomba]
posted by pracowity at 6:59 AM on January 21, 2010

People who make jokes about how soon can they get these at their local restaurant har har and what kind of barbecue sauce goes best with transparent frog ho ho are beneath contempt.
posted by JHarris at 7:06 AM on January 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'll take JHarris sauteed with olive oil, garlic and capers.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:20 AM on January 21, 2010 [5 favorites]

*sigh* some days it's so hard to wax poetic and wistful around here....
posted by gomichild at 7:32 AM on January 21, 2010

See-through frog? I had a see-through human when I was a kid.

(Note to self: typing "see-through model" in Google photos is not safe for work)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:33 AM on January 21, 2010

I will do as you command, Inviso-Frog!
posted by Mister_A at 7:51 AM on January 21, 2010

I wish I were seethrough. I would go around lifting up my shirt and screaming, "BEHOLD! MY SPLEEN!". Lucky frog.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:11 AM on January 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

People who make jokes about how soon can they get these at their local restaurant har har and what kind of barbecue sauce goes best with transparent frog ho ho are beneath contempt.

Um, why? People eat all kinds of weird things. Personally, I don't see the appeal to these, but I don't see it being any weirder than eating a squid or a horse, and people do that, so where's the contempt coming from? Or maybe it was just the joking you're upset about?
posted by cjorgensen at 8:29 AM on January 21, 2010

what kind of barbecue sauce goes best with transparent frog

Clear BBQ sauce, natch. And maybe a nice clear beer to go with.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:30 AM on January 21, 2010

I'll take JHarris sauteed with olive oil, garlic and capers.

And a nice Chianti. Ftftftftft.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:32 AM on January 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

People who make jokes about how soon can they get these at their local restaurant har har and what kind of barbecue sauce goes best with transparent frog ho ho are beneath contempt.

Who joked about getting them at a restaurant or eating them with barbecue sauce? I was thinking of cooking them myself, first and foremost so I can control my salt intake and avoid too much MSG. And barbecue sauce with mini geckos? Uhm, no. Even if they do taste like chicken.
posted by unwordy at 9:04 AM on January 21, 2010

"All of these things take a lot of time to find, and if we don't get to work and put in a lot of hours we're going to miss ever seeing a lot of these little things."

Oh my god, this resonates. I took a trip with the local Audubon Society in Ecuador to track down the rare Racket-Tailed Hummingbird. Eenie-weenie little bird. It took 3 days of round-trip walking, two days of sitting in the "last-spotted location," 8 gajillion exotic bugbites, 12 MREs and 4 peanut-butter-and-jellies, and a busted Isuzu fender.

But we found the 'lil sucker (Pun intended). For approximately 5 seconds, before anyone could even manage a shutter flip. *beakpalm*

I'm all for adventures of the Amazonian kind, but I knew —that very day— that my career as a natural biologist was over.

(That being said, I really, really want a mini lizard. Birthday is listed in profile.)
posted by functionequalsform at 9:38 AM on January 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wish I were seethrough. I would go around lifting up my shirt and screaming, "BEHOLD! MY SPLEEN!".

I'm thinking if you go around doing that now you'd still get 90% of the reaction you'd get if in fact people could see your spleen.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 12:40 PM on January 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

Who joked about getting them at a restaurant or eating them with barbecue sauce?

Eh, was just feeling cranky thinking about a certain type of reaction to the discovery of new animals. In my mind's eye, the jokes were delivered with a certain kind of insufferable smirk that leads me to believe news of the frogs had unearthed a vaguely remembered psychological scar, like maybe a conversation I once had that infuriated me. Maybe having something to do with remembering Rush Limbaugh's horrible declaration that the most beautiful thing about a tree is what you can make with it when you kill it.

It was entirely unprovoked, but then, seeing as how it was not a direct reaction to anything in the thread, it didn't feel too mean to say it. Yeah, it seems kind of like lashing out now. Sorry about that everyone.
posted by JHarris at 1:07 PM on January 21, 2010

If you think those geckos are cute now, wait till their butterfly wings unfurl.
posted by hermitosis at 1:58 PM on January 21, 2010

Not only do I want a bunch of those geckos, I want to keep them scattered amongst my pockets so that when I'm in a store and I'm pulling out some change a few of them drop onto the counter and scamper away.

I will not remark on this, and will, in fact deny it happened if confronted.

They are just small enough that, if seen, people will question their sanity.
posted by quin at 2:26 PM on January 21, 2010 [5 favorites]

So glass frogs aren't completely new to biologists, but is anyone exploiting their see-through-ness for study yet? Surely someone must have seen these before and thought like I did:
"Hey, I can inject this thing with dye that binds to a biomarker and watch it through the skin in real time! sweet! no fancy imaging with radioactive isotopes, just pump the frog full of Blue Lake #3 that binds to hemoglobin and presto, SCIENCE!"

IANABiologist.
posted by slow graffiti at 2:37 PM on January 21, 2010

Those geckos are adorable.
posted by infinitywaltz at 2:56 PM on January 21, 2010

Head asplode from all the awesome

COOL!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 7:59 PM on January 21, 2010