This is a new species of amphibian "Tengchong toothed toad" discovered by Chinese biological conservation workers in the Tengchong area of Gaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve (photo taken on June 22, 2017). Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Yang Jianhuan)
Kunming, 29 Jan (Xinhua) -- During a biodiversity survey in the Tengchong area of the Gaoligong mountain national nature reserve, Chinese biological conservation workers discovered a new species of amphibian and named it "Tengchong toothed toad".
This new amphibian species was discovered during a biodiversity survey of the Tengchong area jointly carried out by the Tengchong Branch of the Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau of Gaoligong mountain national nature reserve and the Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden. The expedition began in April 2014 and is continuing.
The results were published on January 18 in the American academic journal Journal of Amphibian And crawling. Yang Jianhuan, the first author of the paper and director of nature conservation at Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden, said that the Tengchong toothed toad found this time belongs to the genus of the amphibian tailless horned toad family. "Counting this new species, there are currently 23 species recorded in the genus Odontodoptera, and 19 of them are distributed in China, which is the main distribution area of this genus."
Yang Jianhuan introduced that the genus is widely distributed in the alpine regions of the Hengduan Mountains such as the Himalayas, and its habitat altitude is recorded to be more than 5,000 meters. "It is worth mentioning that the newly discovered toothed toad in the Tengchong area of Gaoligong Mountain Reserve is the southernmost record point known for the distribution of the genus in the world."
"The Tengchong toothed toad lives on the main ridge of the Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters." Huang Xiangyuan, the second author of the paper and a senior engineer at the Tengchong Branch of the Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau of gaoligong mountain national nature reserve, said that the Tengchong toothed toad likes to hide in the mud under stones or by the stream, and it is difficult to find. "The inspectors can only find the male toad based on its small and low cry, turning the stones with their hands."
Gaoligong mountain national nature reserve has rich animal and plant resources, so it is known as the "world species gene bank". Tengchong toothed toad is the third new vertebrate science species discovered in the Tengchong area since 2014, and the two new species previously discovered are Tengchong palm toad and Tengchong pseudo-toad.