Hoppy Halloween

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CUTE AND COLORFUL: There are 38 known species of pumpkin toadlets.

Just in time for fall, scientists in Brazil recently identified several new species of pumpkin toadlet. The teensy frogs are some of the smallest in the world—even smaller than a dime. They’re named for their dazzling bright-orange color, which serves as a warning to predators that the frogs are poisonous.

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TINY TOADLET: Most pumpkin toadlets are less than an inch long.

These tiny amphibians can be found only in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, which faces deforestation—the cutting down of large swaths of trees. Finding new species can help people understand how unique these ecosystems are, says Célio Haddad, a zoologist at São Paulo State University in Brazil who discovered one of the new toadlets. “We can only protect what we know exists."

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