Paradoxical Frog

About the Paradoxical Frog

Pseudis paradoxa, known as the paradoxical frog or shrinking frog, is a species of hylid frog from South America. Its name refers to the very large—up to 27 cm (11 in) long—tadpole (the world's longest), which in turn "shrinks" during metamorphosis into an ordinary-sized frog, only about a quarter or third of its former length. Although the recordholder was a tadpole in Amapá that belonged to this species, others in the genus Pseudis also have large tadpoles and ordinary-sized adults.

The species inhabits ponds, lakes, lagoons and similar waters from the Amazon and the Guianas, to Venezuela and Trinidad, with a disjunct distribution in the Magdalena River watershed in Colombia and adjacent far western Venezuela. More southerly populations from the Pantanal region to northeastern Argentina have been recognized as a subspecies, but are now often considered a full species, P. platensis, although the validity of this split is questionable.

The adult frogs of P. paradoxa have a snout–to–vent length of 3.4–7.6 cm (1.3–3.0 in) and are green to brown coloured with dark green, olive or dark brownish stripes or mottling; the pattern... Wikipedia →