Scientists find the world's tiniest vertebrate (photo)

The pea-sized Brazilian frog may be the smallest vertebrate in the world. Scientists have discovered a tiny frog, Brachycephalus pulex, the size of a pea.

The B.pulex flea frog was first described in 2011, but only recently have researchers from the State University of Santa Cruz in Brazil been able to study its size and anatomy in detail, New Scientist reports.

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The measurements of 46 frogfish showed that adult males have an average length of more than 7 millimeters, and females are slightly larger. This makes them smaller than the males of Paedophryne amauensis, a frog from Papua New Guinea that was still considered the smallest amphibian.

The smallest specimen of B. pulex found in the study was only 6.45 millimeters long, 30% smaller than any other known adult male frog.

Such a tiny size leads to unusual anatomical features in the frog, such as the loss of toes, underdeveloped ears, and an inability to jump.

Scientists believe that there may be other vertebrates even smaller than B. pulex that have not been discovered.

As a reminder, a massive colony of sharpnosed crocodiles was spotted near a nuclear power plant in the United States.

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