Video: Tiny frog is world's smallest vertebrate at 7mm long

PA

A teeny tiny frog from Papua New Guinea has been named the world's smallest vertebrate.

The minute frog, called Paedophryne amanuensis, comes in at an average of 7 millimetres, and was found by a team from Louisiana State University on a three-month trip in Papua New Guinea, according to the Mirror.

Its tiny form is made more obvious sat on an American dime, similar in size to the 18 millimetre five pence piece.

A vertebrate is an animal with a backbone, a group that includes mammals, fish, birds and amphibians.

Dr Chris Austin, of the Department of Biological Sciences, said: "It was particularly difficult to locate Paedophryne amauensis due to its diminutive size and the males' high pitched insect-like mating call.

"But it's a great find. New Guinea is a hotspot of biodiversity, and everything new we discover there adds another layer to our overall understanding of how biodiversity is generated and maintained."

According to the BBC, Dr Austin added: "They're occupying the relatively thick leaf litter of tropical forest in low-lying parts of the island, eating incredibly small insects that typically are much smaller than insects that frogs eat."

And he added that they themselves are probably prey to small invertebrates that don't usually eat frogs, possibly including scorpions.

There are more than 60,000 vertebrates known to scientists, with the biggest being the 25-metre long blue whale, which is 3,000 times bigger than this little croaker. The previous smallest invertebrate in the world was an Indonesian fish at 8mm long.