Very Rare Frog Species Found In The Mountains Of Ecuador Is Named After Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane
Looks like anything can influence the science world, no matter how controversial something is. A sitcom cartoon like Family Guy, as much as I personally enjoy the show, attracts criticism as much as praise with how they approach their comedy.
Family Guy’s own creator, Seth MacFarlane, got an animal species named after him! I can’t claim to be an expert in the field of any science, animation, or the life of the actor, but I would never directly associate zoology with MacFarlane.
— Sarah Schwartz she/her/ella 🇺🇦 (@Sarahloves2run) November 10, 2022
It was back in September when a new toxic frog species was discovered in Ecuador during an expedition dedicated to cataloging and protecting the animals in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador.
In an article published in the PeerJ journal, researchers showcase the details of Hyloscirtus sethmacfarlanei. The team who found the new species was led by a partner of the Rainforest Trust which is supported by MacFarlane. Its CEO, James Deutsch, said that the Hyloscirtus sethmacfarlanei name is perfect for the frog.
“It seemed perfect to name this frog, with its playful polka dots juxtaposed with its most likely threatened status, after Seth, who is known more for his comedy than his dedication to science and conservation,” Deutsch said.
The new discovery might be because the area where the team found the frogs is steep and relatively inaccessible, making it hard for people to study the area. There is limited data available to actually assess its conservation status, with the research team only finding four individual frogs, all found within a few meters of each other atop a mountain on the edge of the Amazon basin.
In a blog post made by the EcoMinga Foundation, they wrote that the very rare frog took them four years to find enough individuals to make a thorough description of it.
The frog was handled barehanded when it was first found, and two of the researchers’ hands and fingers started to itch and tingle. They suffered some pain for several hours, even after they put the frog down. The collected adult female has a black body with bright red spots, while the juveniles have different appearances – some samples had yellow bodies with varied black markings, while one had a black body with shades of orange or yellow markings.
According to EcoMinga Foundation, the new frog species was named after Seth MacFarlane at the request of the Rainforest Trust. This is to honor him because he is a passionate conservationist and supporter of nature around the world, the foundation wrote.
Watch the new frog species, Seth MacFarlane’s torrent frog, the proposed standard English name of the Hyloscirtus sethmacfarlanei, in the video below.
