Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash (illustrative)
On 6 November 2025, scientists from the University of Copenhagen, London's Natural History Museum and other institutions described three new species of tree toad from Tanzania's Eastern Arc Mountains in the journal Vertebrate Zoology. Unusually for amphibians, these toads give birth to live young instead of laying eggs.
Key facts
The new species are Nectophrynoides luhomeroensis, N. uhehe and N. saliensis.
Giving birth to live young happens in fewer than 1% of frog and toad species.
The team extracted DNA from more than 250 museum specimens, some over a century old, and also compared body shape and mating calls.
These toads were once thought to belong to a single species, first described in 1905.
Why it matters
The study shows how DNA from old museum collections can reveal species that have been hiding in plain sight for a century. As the researchers note, the discoveries also underline the importance of protecting East Africa's forests, since each new species survives only in small forest patches.
Worth noting
The new species live in small forest patches threatened by deforestation and climate change. A related species in the same genus is already extinct in the wild, and another has not been seen since 2003.