The "The Horned Marsupial Frog Is Clinging To Life!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story titled "Clinging to Life" in my latest Smithsonian Magazine which dealt with the surprise rediscovery of a rare frog known as the horned marsupial frog.  The story began with the word "Marsupial" which usually evokes a kangaroo or perhaps a koala, something furry and warm-blooded, that protects its babies in a pouch.  But a surprising variety of creatures have evolved this unusual means of parental care, including crustaceans, seahorses and frogs.  The frogs have jaunty peaks that stick up from it's eyelids that help to camouflage it as a dry leaf.  The frog is a fascinating creature that people can't wrap their heads around.  Instead of laying thousand of eggs in water, like most frogs, the female horned marsupial frog produces only ten or fewer of the largest amphibian eggs in the world, with a whopping diameter of one centimeter.  Males then fertilize these eggs and place them into a pouch on the mother's back, which is what earns the species, and dozens of related frogs, the "marsupial" moniker.  As the embryos grow, they develop structures similar to mammalian placentas through which their mother delivers oxygen, water and possibly nutrients.  After a few months, horned marsupial frog eggs hatch as forest-ready froglets, remarkably skipping the tadpole stage.  This remarkable adaptation frees them from the need to find ponds or streams for egg-laying.  They spend their lives high up in the trees of Central and South American rainforests where the humid air is thought to keep their skin from drying out.

But, since the second half of the 20th century, these forests have been devastated by logging and plantation usage.  For decades the Marsupial frog had been feared extinct in both Costa Rica and south to Equador.  Than one evening in 2013, a Costa Rican herpetologist named Stanley Salazzar said he heard the frog call he'd been hoping to hear.  He cut a path through the forest toward the call with his machete and turned off his flashlight.  Then he heard the call!  He used his flashlight and behold, when he heard the frog call again, it was right in front of him!  Before long he had seen the Marsupial frog!  

Mom and her youngsters.

Then in Equador, in 2018, researchers headed to a little studied region of the Chacó that narrowly escaped destruction due to logging.  They had heard and seen the horned Marsupial frogs!  They were so loud you could hear them throughout the jungle.  They were once again clinging to life!  What a rare find!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.