Kermit the Frog Look Alike Discovered In Costa Rica

Kermit the Frog’s distant live-action cousin has just been discovered in the jungles of Costa Rica. The new species, Diane’s Bare-hearted Glassfrog (Hyalinobatrachium dianae), is most remarkable for its translucent underbelly (hence the name “glassfrog”) and its bulging white eyes, which look just like Kermit’s.

Only six specimens were collected from sites in Costa Rica's Caribbean foothills, at elevations between 1,300 and 2,950 feet (400 and 900 meters) above sea level. Kubicki and his colleagues wrote that the frog's habitat lies mostly in protected conservation areas with few roads, so it's unlikely that human development will pose a major threat to the species in the future. But frogs around the world have been hit by climate change and infectious disease, and it's unclear how these threats could affect H. dianae, the authors wrote.