Concave-eared Torrent Frog

Concave-eared Torrent Frog
Concave-eared Torrent Frog
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Ranidae
Genus: Odorrana
Species: O. tormota
Binomial name
Odorrana tormota
(Wu, 1977)
Synonyms

Amolops tormotus (Wu, 1977)
Rana tormotus Wu, 1977
Wurana tormota (Wu, 1977)

Odorrana tormota, also known as the concave-eared torrent frog, is a species of Frog native to China. It is the first frog (and the first non-mammalian vertebrate) demonstrated to both produce and perceive ultrasonic frequencies. These frogs' preferred habitat is adjacent to rapidly moving water which produces perpetual low-frequency background noise. Thus, the use of high-frequency calls is believed to facilitate intraspecific communication within the frogs' noisy environment.

Concave-eared Torrent Frogs have extremely thin eardrums recessed in their ears, which allows for the ear bones that connect the drum to sound processing part of the ear to be shorter and lighter. Most frogs have thick eardrums close to the surface of the skin and can only hear frequencies below 12 kilohertz. Concave-eared Torrent Frogs have been recorded chirping at 128 kHz.

This species was formerly placed in the genus Amolops and later on separated in a monotypic genus Wurana. It was eventually recognized to belong in the genus Odorrana where it is perhaps closely related to O. versabilis and the Long-snout Torrent Frog (O. nasica) which also was for long placed in Amolops.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ Cai et al. (2007)
  • Cai, Hong-xia; Che, Jing, Pang, Jun-feng; Zhao, Er-mi & Zhang, Ya-ping (2007): Paraphyly of Chinese Amolops (Anura, Ranidae) and phylogenetic position of the rare Chinese frog, Amolops tormotus. Zootaxa 1531: 49–55. PDF fulltext

External links

Data related to Odorrana tormota at Wikispecies Media related to Odorrana at Wikimedia Commons

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