By Megan Woodward, ABC June 7, 2012
Dr Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University has been researching the
ornate nursery frog found in the wet tropics between Townsville and Port
Douglas.
Dr Hoskin says he suspected for some time that the native north
Queensland frogs were similar but not the same.
"We knew the populations were there and I suspected there might be
more than one species in there that we had been confusing all along," he
said.
Dr Hoskin says there are genetic and morphological differences between
the frogs found in the northern wet tropics, the southern wet tropics and the
population on Hinchinbrook Island.
"So it was quite clear by the end of it that there were three
species," he said.
He says the frogs all look very similar but their mating calls set them
apart.
"When it's raining either up in the rainforest or the mountain tops
on Hinchinbrook Island you'll hear them calling and we'll record the calls of
them in the wild there," he said.
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