New species of flying frog discovered in Vietnam
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SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian researcher who discovered a new species of flying frog near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and named it after her mother said on Tuesday it was a rare find so close to such a big city.
Helen's Flying Frog was first discovered by Ms Jodi Rowley, an amphibian expert from Sydney's Australian Museum, in 2009 during a field trip to the forests fringing the city previously known as Saigon.
Ms Rowley initially thought the tree-dwelling flying frog, so named for the huge webbed feet that allow it to glide or parachute across the forest canopy, was a familiar species when she saw it sitting on a log beside a path.
It was not until a later trip when she saw a specimen of the original type of frog in another part of Vietnam that she realised her creature was something quite different.
