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From Darwin’s Treasure Chest: Rhinoderma

2009; University of Kansas; Volume: 16; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.17161/randa.v16i4.16024

2332-4961

Heiko Werning,

Medical and Biological Sciences

I n 1831, as Charles Darwin began his five-year voyage around the world aboard the hms Beagle, he could hardly have imagined that the impressions he was about to collect would profoundly and permanently change the world.Compared to the later influence of his evolutionary theory, Darwin's other talents, as a natural scientist with universal interests, as a best-selling author of travelogues and natural history reports, and as a collector who dispatched and brought back to europe a wealth of material, are easily overlooked.herpetology also benefited from his discoveries.Among Darwin's collections were countless species previously unknown to science.evaluation of this material was entrusted to thomas bell, a task he found somewhat overtaxing.thus a portion of the work was passed on to the natural history museum of paris, where bell's friend Gabriel bibron, along with colleague André marie Constant Dumèril, described a number of species from Darwin's collection.Among these, in 1841, was a very special frog that the French researchers named in honor of its discoverer: Rhinoderma darwinii. Darwin's FrogsIn February 1835, the Beagle anchored in Valdivia, Chile.there, in the temperate rainforest, Darwin discovered some remarkable little frogs.particularly impressed by these little mites, he recorded atypically detailed observations in his zoological notes.Among other things, he noted their variety of colors and their unusual appearance ("very pretty & curious").Darwin's original observations on what was to become known as Rhinoderma darwinii included the following paraphrased descriptions of several specimens: under side [of] throat, breast & cheeks rich chestnut brown, with snow-white marks; thighs of hind legs blackish with no marks.legs yellowish also with no marks.-upperside, pale iron-rust color, with posterior parts of body, thighs & anterior marks (one triangular & other transverse) beautiful bright green.-Irisrust color.pupil black.-eyessmall.-Appearancevery pretty & curious.-nosefinely pointed.-Jumpslike a frog.Inhabits thick & gloomy forest.Is d of lemuy.this species is excessively common in the forest of Valdivia.seems subject in its colors to remarkable variation.undersurfaceposteriorly jet black & snow white marks, anteriorly rich chestnut brown; above cream color, with triangular slightly darker shades & small marks of green.-there is a point in all at joint of hind legs.-Iris of all is rusty red.Above cream-colored, without shade of green.hind legs yellow; beneath all black with different shaped marks of white.Another, beneath anteriorly the brown is replaced by bright yellow.-uppersurface instead of cream color, rusty red -with darker triangular shading.-Alldie soon in confinement.