Welcome, Purple Kermit!: If you root around in obscure places long enough you never know what you might find. And in the Western Ghats Mountains of southern India biologists have discovered a wholly new species of……frog. It’s a funny looking little sucker: purple, with a small head, tiny eyes, and the chubby body of a non-frog athlete. Big deal, you say? Consider the fact that there are only 29 known families of frogs and the last new one was identified more than 75 years ago, in 1926. Plus, this guy, who will be known as Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis (he definitely needs a new PR agent), is believed to be the last representative of a type of frog that gamboled at the feet of Cretaceous period dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This frog is also similar to a family of frogs that lives across the Indian Ocean, in the Seychelles, supporting the theory of “Gondwana,” the supercontinent which is believed to have incorporated all of earth’s current continents before splitting apart. Here’s hoping no one decides his funky skin, soaked in boiling water, is an aphrodisiac, or would look good as a purse……..

Barney Beware!: “I’m cute and huggable, and I don’t sing annoying songs….”

(Photo: S.D. Biju)