New marsupial frog

A new paper led by Pablo Venegas and collaborators, including Alessandro, has just been published in Zootaxa, announcing the discovery of Gastrotheca mittaliiti sp. nov. ​(inset photo by P. Venegas), a previously unknown species of marsupial frog from the subalpine páramo of the Amazonas department in northern Peru. The study also reports the first confirmed Peruvian record of Gastrotheca turnerorum, previously known only from southern Ecuador.
Marsupial frogs (genus Gastrotheca) are famous for their unique reproductive strategy: females carry developing eggs in a pouch on their back until the young emerge as tadpoles or fully formed froglets. In some direct-developing species, mothers even transfer nutrients to their developing embryos through their dorsal skin! 

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Northern Peru’s isolated high‑elevation habitats continue to reveal new diversity within this remarkable group. The Huancabamba region emerges as a center of Gastrotheca diversification, now with 21 recognized species. The complex geography of deep valleys and high ridges appears to promote isolation and speciation, while climate‑driven threats and frequent fires endanger these fragile páramo and wet puna ecosystems. Fortunately, both G. mittaliiti and the newly recorded Peruvian populations of G. turnerorum also occur within protected areas, offering at least some safeguard for their conservation.

Citation: Venegas, P. J., L. Y. Echevarría, L. A. García Ayachi, I. Wong, G. Chávez, A. García-Bravo, A. Catenazzi, and S. Castroviejo-Fisher. 2026. A new species of marsupial frog (Hemiphractidae: Gastrotheca) from the Andes of northern Peru and first country record of Gastrotheca turnerorum. Zootaxa 5777: 431–452. doi: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5777.3.2