Ranitomeya Aetherea
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''Ranitomeya aetherea'' is a species of small
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 ...
s in the family
Dendrobatidae Poison dart frog (also known as dart-poison frog, poison frog or formerly known as poison arrow frog) is the common name of a group of frogs in the Family (biology), family Dendrobatidae which are native to tropical Central America, Central an ...
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
Juruá River The Juruá River ( ; ) is a southern affluent river of the Amazon River west of the Purus River. The Juruá emerges from highlands in east-central Peru, then winds its way through lowlands in Brazil, sharing with this the bottom of the immense in ...
basin of Brazil. It is one of at least 18 species named in the genus ''
Ranitomeya ''Ranitomeya'' is a genus of dart poison frogs found in Panama and South America south to Peru and Brazil, possibly into Bolivia. Taxonomy In 2006 Grant et al. revised the systematics of poison dart frogs and placed many species formerly classif ...
'' and is uniquely characterized by its light blue and dark brown body and metallic spotted legs.


Discovery

A series of four Rapid Assessment Program for Environmental and Long-Term Ecological Research (RAPELD) modules were recently established in the
Juruá River The Juruá River ( ; ) is a southern affluent river of the Amazon River west of the Purus River. The Juruá emerges from highlands in east-central Peru, then winds its way through lowlands in Brazil, sharing with this the bottom of the immense in ...
basin of Brazil, a region of the
Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
that is poorly studied and difficult to access. After monitoring these modules through 2023 and 2024, researchers identified an unusual frog in the genus ''
Ranitomeya ''Ranitomeya'' is a genus of dart poison frogs found in Panama and South America south to Peru and Brazil, possibly into Bolivia. Taxonomy In 2006 Grant et al. revised the systematics of poison dart frogs and placed many species formerly classif ...
''. It was only observed in one of the four RAPELD sites, in
Eirunepé Eirunepé is a Brazilian municipality in the southwest part of the state of Amazonas, about 1,150 kilometers a straight line from Manaus and 2,417 kilometers by river, one of the cities furthest from its state capital. It is the fourt ...
of Amazonas, Brazil. 26 adult individuals—nineteen males and seven females—were collected from this site for further study.Ranitomeya ''Ranitomeya'' is a genus of dart poison frogs found in Panama and South America south to Peru and Brazil, possibly into Bolivia. Taxonomy In 2006 Grant et al. revised the systematics of poison dart frogs and placed many species formerly classif ...
''
cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...
'' yavaricola'' by Twomey and colleagues in 2023, who noted their morphological similarity to this species, but noted the significant geographic separation of about between the two populations. In contrast, Mônico and colleagues described the specimens as ''
Ranitomeya ''Ranitomeya'' is a genus of dart poison frogs found in Panama and South America south to Peru and Brazil, possibly into Bolivia. Taxonomy In 2006 Grant et al. revised the systematics of poison dart frogs and placed many species formerly classif ...
''
aff. ''Species affinis'' (commonly abbreviated to: ''sp.'', ''aff.'', or ''affin.'') is taxonomic terminology in zoology and botany. In open nomenclature it indicates that available material or evidence suggests that the proposed species is related t ...
'' cyanovittata'' in their 2025 publication naming ''
Ranitomeya aquamarina ''Ranitomeya aquamarina'', also known as the metallic poison frog, is a species of small frogs in the family Dendrobatidae endemic to the Juruá River basin of Brazil. It is one of at least 18 species named in the genus ''Ranitomeya'' and is uniq ...
''.Esteban Diego Koch Esteban () is a spanish people, Spanish male given name, derived from Greek Στέφανος (Stéphanos) and related to the English names Steven and Stephen. Although in its original pronunciation the accent is paroxytone, on the penultimate syllab ...
 and colleagues described ''Ranitomeya aetherea'' as a new species of ''Ranitomeya'' based on these specimens. 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 ...
specimen, INPA-H 47581, is an adult male collected in March 2024. The other collected specimens were assigned as
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.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 ...
, "'' aetherea''", is derived from a
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
word meaning "heavenly". This name was chosen to reference both the blue shade of the animals' dorsal stripes and the enchanting feeling noted by the researchers who discovered the species.reddish brown Shades of brown can be produced by combining red, yellow, and black pigments, or by a combination of orange and black—illustrated in the color box. The RGB color model, that generates all colors on computer and television screens, makes brown ...
 dorsum (upper side) with three
light blue Light blue is a color or range of colors, typically a lightened shade with a hue between cyan and blue. The first use of "light blue" as a color term in English language, English is in the year 1915. In Russian and some other languages, there ...
stripes running parallel from front to back. The gular region (throat) and
venter Venter or Venters is an Afrikaans (and rarely, Jewish) surname, and may refer to: Venter * AJ Venter (b. 1973), South African rugby union footballer * Al J Venter (b. 1938), author * André Venter (b. 1970), South African rugby union footballer * ...
(underside) are also light blue, with dark spots. The arms and legs are metallic
copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
in color, with light reddish brown spots and patches of light blue at the base of each appendage. The
tadpole A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the Larva, larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully Aquatic animal, aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial animal, ...
does not exhibit the characteristic blue patterns until its final stage (stages 37–38).Bayesian inference Bayesian inference ( or ) is a method of statistical inference in which Bayes' theorem is used to calculate a probability of a hypothesis, given prior evidence, and update it as more information becomes available. Fundamentally, Bayesian infer ...
. They recovered ''R. aetherea'' as the
sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...
to '' R. cyanovittata'' in a well-supported clade also including '' R. yavaricola'' in the '' R. vanzolinii''
species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...
. The results of their analyses are displayed in the
cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...
below.aetherea Endemic frogs of Brazil Amphibians described in 2025