Well this is fun: Scientists have not only discovered a new species, they've discovered a new species that is visible to the naked eye and its natural habitat is the Tri-state area. In fact, the dead center of its known range is Yankee Stadium! The new species (new to science, not the world) doesn't have a name yet but looks very, very similar to your run of the mill leopard frog, it just croaks different. And has very distinct DNA.
The currently known range of the amphibian starts around Trenton in the south and Putnam County in the north. Where normally the mating call of a southern leopard frog is "a repetitive chuckle," the newly discovered species makes "a single cluck." And after three years of research scientists are ready to declare it a new species. You can read the paper that makes the claim right here.
"Here is a brand-new species, and it’s not a species of bacteria or a barely visible insect," H. Bradley Shaffer, a professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Los Angeles, croaked to the Times. "It’s a big amphibian, and kids have probably been catching and playing with it for years. Even in an urban center like New York, where herpetologists have tromped all over for a century or more, there can be new species out there. That shows the importance of urban areas in terms of conservation and biodiversity."
As for the name of the new species? Jeremy A. Feinberg, a doctoral candidate in ecology and evolution at Rutgers University who found the guy, gets dibs on naming it but isn't telling anyone what he's picked yet: "Part of me has always wanted to call these New York leopard frogs, but I think people in New Jersey and Connecticut will protest. I have to balance the politics with the naming."
