Picture this: knee-deep in the stingy, bitey, steamy jungles of Madagascar, you and your research team discover 7 new species of frog—what do you name them?
Inspired by the various sounds of American sci-fi films and television, 7 tree frogs that make otherworldly sounds were named after characters from Star Trek.
The international team of scientists said their high-pitched whistling calls are like sound effects from the iconic sci-fi series.
All 7 new animals come from the frog genus Boophis, and emit “bird-like” whistling sounds in their communication with other frogs, rather than croaks. According to Professor Miguel Vences, a Trekkie to some degree, such whistling sounds are used often in the classic sci-fi franchise.
“That’s why we named the frogs after Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, Burnham, and Pike, seven of the most iconic captains from the sci-fi series,” said Professor Vences.
Assistant Professor Mark Scherz of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, joked that while there weren’t any phasers or stars in the rainforests of Madagascar, there was quite a lot of “trekking.”
“A few species are found in places accessible to tourists, but to find several of these species, we had to undertake major expeditions to remote forest fragments and mountain peaks,” said Scherz. “There’s a real sense of scientific discovery and exploration here, which we think is in the spirit of Star Trek.”
He explained that the otherworldly calls of the frogs are known as “advertisement calls,” a type of self-promotion that may convey information about the male frog’s suitability as a mate to females.
Scherz says that particular group lives along fast-flowing streams in the most mountainous regions of Madagascar, a noisy background that may explain why the frogs call at such high pitches.
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He said some of the frog calls might remind Star Trek fans of sounds from the so-called “boatswain whistle” and a device called the ‘tricorder.’ But, to other people, they may sound like a bird or an insect.
“If the frogs just croaked like our familiar European frogs, they might not be audible over the sound of rushing water from the rivers they live near,” said Dr. Jörn Köhler, who played a key role in analyzing the calls among the study team. “Their high-pitched trills and whistles stand out against all that noise.”
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The calls also lined up with the genetic analysis the team performed, according to their findings published in the journal Vertebrate Zoology. Madagascar is renowned for its biodiversity, and research in its rainforests continues to uncover hidden species.
The island, around the size of France, is home to about 9% of the world’s frog species.
“We’ve only scratched the surface of what Madagascar’s rainforests have to offer,” said Professor Andolalao Rakotoarison, of the Université d’Itasy, Madagascar. “Every time we go into the forest, we find new species, and just in terms of frogs, there are still several hundred species we haven’t yet described.”
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She and the rest of the team have described around 100 new species from the island in the last 10 years alone.
The research team hopes their latest discovery will strengthen conservation efforts in Madagascar’s rainforests.
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