New species of frog found in India

WESTERN GHATS, India, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Purple cows remain elusive, but scientists have discovered a species of purple frog in southern India.

The bright purple croaker, described as a chubby blob with a pointy snout, is so different from known frogs it has been placed into a new family called Nasikabatrachidae, from Sanskrit and Greek for "nose frog," the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

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The discovery by S.D. Biju of the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute of Kerala, India, and Franky Bossuyt of Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, is reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

Penn State University biologist S. Blair Hedges said the discovery was a "once-in-a-century find," the Times said. Only 29 families of frogs are known and the last new family was named in the 1800s.

The frog was found in the Western Ghats, a mountain range on India's western coast that is home to numerous species found nowhere else in the world.