''Cornufer gilliardi'', commonly known as Gilliard's wrinkled ground frog, is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

in the family

Ceratobatrachidae The Ceratobatrachidae are a family of frogs found in the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, the Philippines, Palau, Fiji, New Guinea, and the Admiralty Islands, Admiralty, Bismarck Islands, Bismarck, and Solomon Islands (archipelago), Solomon Islands. Tax ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Whiteman Ranges of

New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

(

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

). The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''gilliardi'' honors Ernest Thomas Gilliard, an American ornithologist who, together with Margaret Gilliard, collected the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

Taxonomy

''Cornufer gilliardi'' was originally described as ''Platymantis gilliardi'' based on holotype from New Britain and

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

s from the Admiralty Archipelago. Later research has shown that the Admiralty Archipelago specimens represent other species, ''Platymantis latro'' (now '' Cornufer latro''), and that the range of ''Cornufer gilliardi'' is restricted to New Britain.

Description

The holotype is an adult female measuring in

snout–vent length Snout–vent length (SVL) is a morphometric measurement taken in herpetology from the tip of the snout to the most posterior opening of the cloacal slit (vent)."direct line distance from tip of snout to posterior margin of vent" It is the mos ...

. The tympanum and the supratympanic fold are moderately distinct. The eyes are relatively large. The fingers have lateral fringes but no discs. The toes have small terminal discs. The preserved specimen is dorsally gray-brown, slightly paler between the convergent dorsal folds. The chest and abdomen are pale and nearly immaculate.

Habitat and conservation

The ecology of ''Cornufer gilliardi'' is poorly known. It is probably a foothill species occurring in rainforest habitats. The holotype was collected at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. Development is direct (i.e., there is no free-living larval stage) and the eggs are laid on the ground. The very extensive logging taking place within its range is a possible threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28057410 gilliardi Amphibians of Papua New Guinea Endemic amphibian species of Papua New Guinea Fauna of New Britain Amphibians described in 1960 Taxa named by Richard G. Zweifel Taxonomy articles created by Polbot