Israel painted frog

Israel Painted Frog
Conservation status
Extinct (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Discoglossidae
Genus:	Discoglossus
Species:	D. nigriventer
Binomial name
Discoglossus nigriventer Mendelssohn & Steinitz, 1943

The Israel painted frog, Palestinian painted frog or Hula Painted Frog (Discoglossus nigriventer) is a thought to be extinct amphibian, until one female specimen was found on 16 november 2011. this is an endmic species to the Lake Hula marshes in Israel.

The deliberate draining of Lake Hula and its marshes in the 1950s was thought to lead to the extinction of this frog, along with the cyprinid fish Acanthobrama hulensis and cichlid fish Tristramella intermedia.

Description

The Israel painted frog had a dark belly with small white spots. It was colored ochre above and rusty colour grading into dark olive-grey to greyish-black on the sides. It furthermore differed from the common painted frog (Discoglossus pictus) by its greater interocular distance, longer forelimbs, and a less projecting snout. The type specimen was an adult female with a body length of 40 mm.

Almost nothing is known about its life history because it was only found twice by scientists. Two adults and two tadpoles were collected in 1940 and a single specimen was found in 1955. This was the last record of this species.

The four 1940 specimens were to be used as types, but the smaller, half-grown frog was eaten by the larger one in captivity.^[2] The latter eventually became the holotype (HUJZ Amphib. Discogl. 1) for the species' description and this or the individual collected in 1955 apparently is the only material remains of the species known today; the two tadpole paratypes (HUJZ Amphib. Discogl. 2 and 2a) appear to have been lost.^{[citation needed]}

Extinction

The IUCN has classified this species as extinct since 1996^[1] but Israel continues to list it as an endangered species in the slim hope that a relict population may be found in the Golan Heights.

In 2000 a scientist of the Lebanese nature protection organisation A Rocha claimed he had seen a frog species which could be Discoglossus nigriventer in the Aammiq marshes south of the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. Two French-Lebanese-British expeditions in the years 2004 and 2005 brought no confirmation of the further existence of this species.^[3] In August 2010 a search organised by the Amphibian Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature set out to look for various species of frogs thought to be extinct in the wild, including the Israel painted frog.^[4]

In 2011 a routine patrol at Ha'Hula lake found an unknown frog, and scientists have confirmed that it is one of this rare species^[5].

See also

• List of extinct animals of Asia

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Papenfuss, Theodore; Disi, Ahmad; Anderson, Steven; Kuzmin, Sergius; Gasith, Avital; Sadek, Riyad A.; Werner, Yehudah (2004). "Discoglossus nigriventer". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/6715/0. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
2. ^ Mendelssohn & Steinitz, 1943
3. ^ Tron, 2005
4. ^ Black, Richard (2010-08-09). "Global hunt begins for 'extinct' species of frogs". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10859989. Retrieved 2010-08-09. 
5. ^ Zafrir Rinat, Long thought extinct, Hula painted frog found once again in Israeli nature reserve, Haaretz November 17, 2011

Bibliography

• Mendelssohn, Heinrich and Steinitz, Heinz (1943). A new frog from Palestine. Copeia. 1943 (4): 231-233. doi:10.2307/1438135 (First page image)
• Paz, U. (1975): [The Rehabilitation of the Hula Nature Reserve]. Nature Conservation in Israel: Research & Surveys 1: 116-206 [Article in Hebrew].
• Steinitz, Heinz (1955): Occurrence of Discoglossus nigriventer in Israel. Bulletin of the Research Council of Israel B 5: 192-193.
• Tron, François (2005): The Eastern spadefoot Toad (Pelobates syriacus): A new amphibian species for Lebanon. The international expedition of herpetological research in South Lebanon, April 2005. PDF fulltext

External links

• ARKive: Images of specimen HUJZ Amphib. Discogl. 1 in life. Retrieved 2006-DEC-14.
• Global Amphibian Assessment: Discoglossus nigriventer - Hula Painted Frog. Contains map of locations where specimens were found. Retrieved 2006-DEC-14.
• http://www.medwetcoast.com/IMG/200508_pr_Aammiq__frog.pdf