Frog

[Scientists:Researchers] discover new species all the time - on the order of 15,000 a year. One of the latest [additions:emission] to the tree of life is a new type of leopard frog. Which might sound unremarkable, except for where it was found: New York City. But how does a frog go unnoticed in the Big Apple? Well, even experts have a hard time telling this new species from its [northern:eastern] and southern cousins on looks alone. But the new guy has a [different:several] croak, which raised ecologists' suspicions. So they tracked down four leopard frog populations with the unique call - including one within view of the Statue of Liberty - and took DNA samples. As they suspected, the odd brokers' croakers weren't southern or northern leopard frogs, or even a mix. They had a [genetic:genic] ancestry of their own - earning them new species status. Those results appear in the [journal:dairy] Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.