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The Hula painted frog (''Latonia nigriventer'') is an amphibian and the only living member of the genus ''Latonia''. It was thought to be extinct as a result of habitat destruction during the 1950s until the species was rediscovered in 2011. It is endemic to the Lake Hula marshes in Israel. The draining of Lake Hula and its marshes in the 1950s was thought to have caused the extinction of this frog, along with the cyprinid fish ''Acanthobrama hulensis'' and cichlid fish ''Tristramella intermedia''. Only five individuals had been found prior to the draining of the lake. Environmental improvements in the Hula reserve have been cited as a possible reason for the frog's reemergence.〔 ==Description== The Hula painted frog has a dark belly with small white spots. It is colored ochre above with a rusty colour grading into dark olive-grey to greyish-black on the sides. Differences from the common painted frog (''Discoglossus pictus'') include its greater interocular distance, longer forelimbs, and a less projecting snout. The type specimen was an adult female with a body length of Little is known about its history, because few specimens have been found by scientists. Two adults and two tadpoles were collected in 1940 and a single specimen was found in 1955. This would prove to be the last record of this species until 2011. The four 1940 specimens were to be used as types, but the smaller, half-grown frog was eaten by the larger one in captivity. The latter eventually became the holotype (HUJZ Amphib. Discogl. 1) for the species' description and this or the individual collected in 1955 apparently is the only material remains of the species known today; the two tadpole paratypes (HUJZ Amphib. Discogl. 2 and 2a) appear to have been lost. According to an ecologist of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the frog's Hebrew name, ''agulashon shehor-gahon'' (''Black-bellied round-tongued''), derives from its black belly and round tongue. The scientific name of the species reflects these details as well. Unlike the tongues of other frogs, it is not used to catch prey. This frog was originally proposed to be a member of the genus ''Discoglossus'', but further genetic and morphological assessment after the rediscovery of the species led to a reassignment to ''Latonia'', for which no other living examples are known. Other members of ''Latonia'' are known from the fossil record to have lived as recently as ~1 million years ago.〔 However, based on phylogenetic analysis, it was estimated that the last common ancestor of ''Latonia'' and its closest related genus, ''Discoglossus'', lived approximately 32 million years ago.〔 On this basis, the Hula painted frog has been labeled a living fossil, the only extant representative of an ancient genetic split.〔〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hula painted frog」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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