I first saw this picture in the newspaper yesterday (I’m one of the dinosaurs that still gets a hard copy). It’s not only the world’s smallest frog, but the world’s smallest vertebrate (a creature with a spine). In the picture, the frog is resting on a dime [photo credit: Christopher Austin, LSU].

The frogs — named Paedophryne amanuensis — live in damp, fallen leaves on the floors of the tropical forests of Papua New Guinea and were discovered by a team led by Christopher Austin.

They found the frog by focusing on its peculiar “tink-tink-tink” call, which apparently sounded a bit like a cricket. They scooped up a large bundle of leaves — from within which the sound was emanating — and, when the diminutive creature hopped from one of the leaves, they were surprised that it was not an insect.