Fingernail-Sized Frog Found After 62 Years in a Jar

A frog smaller than an eraser has rewritten the scientific record, 62 years after two pioneering women scientists plucked it from a Brazilian field.

In January 1963, Smithsonian zoologists Doris Cochran and Doris Blake were exploring Brazil's Atlantic Forest when they spotted something extraordinary: a copper-colored frog with a creamy stripe down its back, no bigger than a fingernail. They carefully preserved it and brought it home to the National Museum of Natural History, where it was catalogued and placed in storage.

There it sat, specimen number USNM 148487, waiting in its jar.

Fast forward to 2024, when herpetologists Taran Grant and Paulo Pinheiro were examining the museum's tree frog collection. The tiny specimen caught their attention immediately. Its odd appearance and unusual features didn't match any known species.

At first, they were skeptical. The frog had been collected in Paraná state, hundreds of miles from where its closest relatives lived. No other rocket frog had ever been found there, and despite six decades of field research in the region, no one had spotted another one since.

The researchers consulted Cochran's personal travel journal from the expedition, stored in the Smithsonian archives. Her handwritten notes confirmed everything: the location, the date, even the "big field full of anthills and cow-chewed grass clumps" where she found it.

A careful analysis revealed the truth. Despite being dried, brittle and slightly contorted after decades in preservation, the specimen showed distinctive traits: a swollen finger, a concealed eardrum, and a unique curved skin feature on its foot. Measuring just over half an inch long, it was officially a new species.

The Bright Side

This discovery celebrates not just the frog, but the foresight of museum collectors. Cochran and Blake were scientific pioneers in an era when few women held such positions. Blake worked mostly as an unpaid volunteer for 50 years, yet her contributions to science proved invaluable.

The museum's collection holds more than 148 million specimens, most never on display. Each one is a time capsule, preserving information that future scientists might need to solve tomorrow's mysteries. This little frog waited 62 years for technology and expertise to catch up.

The story also highlights why preserving biodiversity matters. This frog may be the last of its kind. Without Cochran and Blake's careful collecting and the museum's meticulous preservation, an entire species would have vanished from Earth without anyone ever knowing it existed.

Scientists have described around 100 frog species in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, but countless more may be waiting in museum collections worldwide. Each specimen represents a piece of Earth's story, a fragment of life that deserves recognition.

One tiny frog in a jar proved that patience and preservation can illuminate corners of the natural world we didn't even know were dark.