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Tiny Toad to Tell Secrets? | National Geographic


and they’re on a little leaf about that
big sad one of these priceless little
babies this is fabulous I do want to
stay another night I’d like to do some
more work on their ecology I didn’t have
my camera with me on and on the other
yada yada but we’re successful yeah this
is a representative of a group of toads
call the pebble codes toads or frogs but
this one is a special code amongst toads
because it’s a climber it’s arboreal
this particular one is one that I’m
especially interested in because pebble
toads commonly are occur on the summit’s
of the highest of pulleys de pues may be
among the most ancient evolutionary
islands because they’re high and
altitudes are separated from each other
and the animals and plants on the
summit’s of Tipu ease our unique there
because of the unique climate zone
summits it is a biodiversity hotspot on
the planet this is potentially the
ancestor because it’s in the lower cloud
force that occur at the base of the
cliffs of the taller two buoys this one
may be the ancestor to all those on the
summit’s we’re going to look at those
the DNA from those on the summits to see
whether this in fact is oh the ancestor
I’ll get her in a minute tapu ease are
an evolutionary archipelago just like
the Galapagos Islands but what’s really
interesting about two pulleys is they
are potentially much older this is a
small crevasse in rock leading down to
this giant chasm I want to explore the
forest in the bottom of it
I got down the bottoms that set three
days and three nights and found the
animal it took at least 36 hours to
recognize how to find it we assume the
toads are as ancient as the two pulleys
but guess what this work is beginning to
show something very interesting not only
the pebble tones but many of the
reptiles in it libyans that have gotten
to the summit’s are actually pretty
recently arrived and this is a big
paradigm shift a paradigm shifts means
everybody thought one thing and the
whole world has to change now to think
another thing and that’s what some of
the data I’m gathering is all about is
trying to corroborate this latest
finding and then we have to understand
how they get there did they climb up the
cliff did a storm suck them up from
somewhere else and drop them on the top
so as in all science when you
investigate something you always come up
with a lot more questions than you get
answers
you
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