The purple frog

The purple frog was originally thought to belong to a unique family called Nasikabatrachidae, but was incorporated as a subfamily into the larger Sooglossidae family in 2006. Its closest relatives are the Seychelles frogs, the ancestors of which were present on the Indo-Madagascan land mass with the purple frog’s predecessors when it broke away from the supercontinent of Gondwana 120 million years ago. Formally discovered in 2003, the purple frog spends most of the year underground, surfacing only to breed during the monsoon. This species is threatened by ongoing forest loss for coffee, cardamom and ginger plantations.