有趣的青蛙
有個胖胖的身體，還有個豬鼻子
沒想到都到了20世紀了還可以發現這種古生物種
也許會對我們的醫療有所幫助吧
等著科學家去研究吧
Nature 425, 711–714; 2003
這是蛙類？面部有些與人形相仿，身體又和泥鰍一般光滑。奇怪的品種？
原來這是名叫Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis的印度鼻蛙：
科學家弗蘭克-博斯蘇懷特(Franky Bossuyt)和比利時布魯塞爾自由大學的SD Biju在2003年發現了一種青蛙新品種－印度鼻蛙 Nasikabatrachidae。科學家將其命名為「Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis」，
它最近的親緣關係是生活在印度洋塞舌爾的「sooglossids」蛙。這兩種蛙類都是白堊紀時期一種特殊蛙類的分支。
分佈在印度喀拉拉邦高止山脈西部 sahyadri山丘。
Nasikabatrachidae(印度鼻蛙)穴居，身長約70mm， 圓鼓的身體，渾身呈明亮的紫色，小頭、尖嘴、細眼。
Scientists have given it the name Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, from the Sanskrit word for nose (nasika); batrachus, meaning frog; and Sahyadri, the name for its mountain home.
Its head appears too small for its body and it looks more like a squat, grumpy blob than a living creature.
But to the scientists who describe it in the journal Nature, the frog is a beautiful find because of what it tells them about Earth history.
「It is an important discovery because it tells us something about the early evolution of advanced frogs that we would not know otherwise because there are no fossil records from this lineage,」 says Franky Bossuyt, of Free University of Brussels, Belgium.
以上文字取自：http://my.opera.com/ant99/blog/2007/03/22/nasikabatrachus-sahyadrensis
