Kingdom Animalia Order Anura Genus Cophixalus Higher classification Cophixalus | Phylum Chordata Family Microhylidae Scientific name Cophixalus saxatilis Rank Species | |
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Similar Cophixalus, Frog, Scanty frog, Microhylidae, Amphibians | ||
The Black Mountain boulder frog (Cophixalus saxatilis, also known as the rock haunting frog or the Black Mountain rainforest frog) is a species of frog in the Microhylidae family.
It is endemic to Australia, and its populations are now restricted to the Black Mountain (Kalkajaka) National Park, Australia.
Its original habitats were subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, rocky areas, and caves, now severely reduced to the "Black Mountains" 25 km south-west of Cooktown, Queensland.
Description
The Queensland Environmental Protection Agency has described and summarized some of the distinctive features of this frog as follows:
The vulnerable Black Mountain boulderfrog or rock haunting frog (Cophixalus saxatilis) is one of the largest (about the size of a walnut) of Australia’s microhylids — a group of frogs normally confined to the leaf litter of tropical rainforests.
This large-eyed frog lays its eggs on land rather than in water. An adult tends to the eggs and young, which hatch as fully formed froglets. They have no tadpole stage.
The smaller mottled brown male are more easily heard than seen. Their call is a sharp tapping noise.
They have acquired an almost crab-like ability to scuttle on the granite boulders, although they can still disappear in a series of leaps when alarmed. At night these frogs emerge to forage on the boulders of the mountain and in and about the scattered figs and fringing monsoon forest.