Are Mesopotamia Beaked Toads Extinct 100 Years After Their Discovery?

Summary: One mature and two immature specimens are all that account for Mesopotamia beaked toads if they are extinct 100 years after their discovery.

Only three specimens, collected by De Soto Mining Company general manager R.D.O. Johnson, attest to the existence, and possible extinction, of Colombia's Mesopotamia beaked toad (Rhinella rostrata); illustration from American herpetologist Gladwyn Kinsley Noble's 1920 description by Colombian artist and Arte y Conservación co-founder Paula Andrea Romero Ardila: Global Wildlife Conservation @globalwildlife, via Facebook Aug. 9, 2010

Three American Museum of Natural History specimens in New York City, New York, alone attest to geographical appearances and physical aspects if Mesopotamia beaked toads are extinct 100 years after their discovery.

R.D.O. Johnson, general manager for De Soto Mining Company in Middleton, Arizona, brought three specimens back as mining engineer on a hydroelectric project in western Colombia. Gladwyn Kingsley Noble (Sept. 20, 1894-Dec. 9, 1940) classified the Johnson specimens scientifically for the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History Dec. 8, 1920. A scientific expedition in September 2010 discovered no Mesopotamia beaked toads in the Bufonidae (from Greek būfō, "toad" and -ειδής, "-like") family member's original collection locality.

Conservation International, FundaciónAves, Global Wildlife Conservation and International Union for Conservation of Nature Amphibian Specialist Group researchers explored the 8,110.24-foot (2,472-meter) wetland elevation above sea level.

Don Church of Global Wildlife Conservation, Robin Moore of Conservation International and Alonso Quevedo of Fundación ProAves found no Mesopotamia beaked toads in Santa Rita Creek.

International Union for Conservation of Nature Amphibian Specialist Group members gave sustainability assessments July 21, 2016, of critical endangerment in agro-industrializing, farmed and ranched native habitats. The American Museum of Natural History adult specimen, AMNH no. 1359, heralds from 14 miles (22.53 kilometers) north of Mesopotamia village in Antioquia Department's southern homelands. Mesopotamia beaked toads, identified initially as Bufo rostratus and Rhamphophryne rostratus (from Greek ῥάµϕος, "beak" and φρύνη, "toad" and Latin rostrātus, "beaked"), impart triangularity, tubercularity, webbedness.

Mesopotamia beaked toads juggle triangular parotoids (from Greek παρά, "near," ὠτ-, "ear" and -ειδής, "belonging") and snouts, tubercles (from Latin tuberculum, "little bump") and webbed digits.

Mesopotamia beaked toads know bumpy, pointed heads; crested temples; hidden tympanums (from Greek τύμπανον, "[ear] drum"); sharp eye corners; flat nasal bridges; and flat-topped, sharp-edged snouts.

Mesopotamia beaked toads look long-fingered for all but their first fingers; respectively one-third and three-fourths webbed for fingers and toes; and bumpy along brown-yellow, cross-banded appendages. They manifest large, serialized bumps that merge, with fine notches, into marked ridges where brown-yellow sides and upper-parts meet and, with black-brown net-like patterns, white-yellow undersides. They net 0.55-inch- (14-millimeter-) wide heads and, from the tips of their snouts to the vents at the bases of hind limbs, 1.61-inch- (41-millimeter-) long bodies.

Mesopotamia beaked toads, if not extinct 100 years after their discovery, obtain 1.22-inch (31-millimeter) fore- and 2.01-inch (51-millimeter) hind-limb lengths from armpits and vents to toe-tips.

American Museum of Natural History specimens of less yellow, redder subadults, AMNH no. 1362 and AMNH no. 1384, present 0.91-inch (23-millimeter) and 1.42-inch (36-millimeter) snout-vent lengths.

Less immature specimens of Mesopotamia beaked toads, Rhinella (from Greek ῥίς, "nose" and Latin -ella, "little") rostrata scientifically, quarter crested temples and ridged eyelids and skulls. Mesopotamia beaked toads reveal forms reminiscent of harlequin toads (Rhinella festae) and cranial ridges, first fingers, lumpy upper-sides and small parotoids like evergreen toads (Incilius coniferus). They show no similarities to the former, Nicaraguan species and the latter, Ecuadorean in their hidden eardrums, prominent snouts and widespread webbing of fingers and toes.

Meopotamia beaked toads, unless extinct 100 years after their discovery, tally occupancies and occurrences respectively under 3.86 and 38.61 square miles (10 and 100 square kilometers).

In his 1920 description, Mesopotamia beaked toad (Rhinella rostrata) discoverer Gladwyn Kingsley Noble identified Bufo coniferus (now Incilius coniferus) as the new species' closest relative; evergreen toad (Incilius coniferus), May 30, 2011: Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Only three specimens, collected by De Soto Mining Company general manager R.D.O. Johnson, attest to the existence, and possible extinction, of Colombia's Mesopotamia beaked toad (Rhinella rostrata); illustration from American herpetologist Gladwyn Kinsley Noble's 1920 description by Colombian artist and Arte y Conservación co-founder Paula Andrea Romero Ardila: Global Wildlife Conservation @globalwildlife, via Facebook Aug. 9, 2010, @ https://www.facebook.com/globalwildlife/photos/a.470240019304/471875944304/

In his 1920 description, Mesopotamia beaked toad (Rhinella rostrata) discoverer Gladwyn Kingsley Noble identified Bufo coniferus (now Incilius coniferus) as the new species' closest relative; evergreen toad (Incilius coniferus), May 30, 2011: Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Incillius_coniferus1.jpg; Brian Gratwicke (brian.gratwicke), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/19731486@N07/5777297946

For further information:

Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins; and Michael Grayson. "Johnson." The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Exeter UK: Pelagic Publishing.

Black, Richard. 16 November 2010. "New Frog Species Found in Hunt for Old Ones." BBC> News > Science & Environment.
Available @ https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-11765036

Cannatella, David. "True Toads, Harlequin Frogs, and Relatives (Bufonidae)." In: Michael Hutchins, William E. Duellman and Neil Schlager, eds., Grzimek's Animal Lie Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 6 Amphibians: 183-195. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Global Wildlife Conservation @globalwildlife. 9 August 2010. "Mesopotamia Beaked Toad (Rhinella rostrata) This species was discovered in 1914 in Western Colombia, and since then there has been no further documentation. Currently listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; this species will be one of our focal points during our field expedition to Colombia. Location: near Mesopotamia, Antioquia, Colombia Image © Paula Andrea Romero Ardila." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/globalwildlife/photos/a.470240019304/471875944304/

Hogan, C. Michael. 24 November 2012. "Mesopotamia Beaked Toad Rhinella rostrata Noble, 1920." iGoTerra.
Available @ https://www.igoterra.com/artspec_information.asp?thingid=137822&lang=eng

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group 2017. "Rhinella rostrata." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T54881A85876308. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T54881A85876308.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/54881/85876308

Johnson, R.D.O. December 1912. "Notes on the Habits of a Climbing Catfish (Arges marmoratus) from the Republic of Colombia." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. XXII (22), issue 1: 327-333. New York NY: Hill Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1912.tb55167.x.
Available @ https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1912.tb55167.x

Johnson, R.D.O. 9 December 1911. "Placer Mining in Colombia." The Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. XCII (92), no. 24: 1137-1141. New York NY: Hill Publishing Company.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013736726&view=1up&seq=1159
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/emjengineeringmi92newy/page/1137

Johnson, R.D.O. 30 December 1911. "Traveling in Colombia." The Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. XCII (92), no. 27: 1280-1282. New York NY: Hill Publishing Company.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013736726&view=1up&seq=1302
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/emjengineeringmi92newy/page/1280

LiveScience. 16 November 2010. Updated 13 January 2015. "Beaked Frog and Ruby-Eyed Toad Discovered in Columbia." Fox News > Science.
Available @ https://www.foxnews.com/science/beaked-frog-and-ruby-eyed-toad-discovered-in-columbia

Noble, Gladwyn Kingsley. 8 December 1920. "Article IX. Two New Batrachians from Colombia." Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. XLII: 441-446. New York NY: The American Museum of Natural History Board of Trustees, 1920.
Available via Digital Library @ http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/1917//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/bul/B042a09.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Personal Section, The Engineering and Mining Journal. 6 October 1906. "R.D.O. Johnson, general manager of the De Soto Mining Company, of Middleton, Arizona, was recently in New York on business connected with his company." The Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. LXXXII (82), no. 14 (Oct. 6, 1906): 649. New York NY: Hill Publishing Company.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510008625544&view=1up&seq=685