Indian Purple Frog

The Indian Purple Frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) was formally described as a new species in 2003, discovered in the Western Ghats mountain range of India. Its discovery was particularly significant because it represented an entirely new amphibian family, Nasikabatrachidae, previously unknown to science.

The Indian Purple Frog is a fossorial species, meaning it burrows into the soil and lives underground for most of the year, feeding primarily on termites using its specialized snout. It surfaces only for a brief period of a few days during the monsoon season to breed in temporary streams and pools.

The lineage of the Indian Purple Frog is estimated to be approximately 130 million years old, dating back to the Cretaceous period when the Indian subcontinent was still part of the supercontinent Gondwana. This makes it one of the most evolutionarily distinct amphibians alive today.

The Indian Purple Frog is endemic to the Western Ghats of India, a UNESCO-listed biodiversity hotspot along the country's southwestern coast. Its range is primarily restricted to the southern portion of the Western Ghats, where it inhabits the moist soil of tropical evergreen forests.