Cornufer pelewensis

The Palau wrinkled ground frog (Cornufer pelewensis) is a frog. It lives in Micronesia on Palau.

The adult female frog is more than 60 mm long from nose to rear end and the adult male frog is 30-35 mm long.  The skin on its back can be tan, brown, or yellow.  It may have a pattern or not.  Sometimes there is pink or purple color where the legs meet the body but sometimes not.

The frogs live in many parts of Palau.  Palau is an archipelago, or group of islands.  The frogs live on all the larger islands and many of the small ones, but they do not live in the southwest.  Scientists have seen that the frogs do not live on some islands that have all the right food and other conditions. They do not know why the frogs do not live there too.

These frogs can live in places where human beings have changed the area.  They live in forests, but they spread out.  In back yards and farms, sometimes many frogs appear at the same time.

These frogs do not become tadpoles.  Instead, they hatch out of their eggs as small frogs.  Scientists do not know how the frogs mate.  Because the male frog is so much smaller than the female frog, the male frog cannot fertilize eggs by holding on to the female frog as she lays them.

References

Category:Frogs of Oceania