Extinct Golden Toad

 

The golden toad was one of more than 500 species in the family Bufonidae—the "true toads". Males were orange and sometimes slightly mottled on the belly, while females showed a greater variety of colors, including black, yellow, red, green, and white; both sexes had smooth skin. 

 


Females were typically larger than males. Body length ranged from 39 to 48 mm in males and from 42 to 56 mm in females. Males had proportionally longer limbs and longer, more acute noses than females.Females also had enlarged cranial crests above the level of the orbit (eye socket), while in males the crests were much lower. Individuals spent the majority of their lives in moist underground burrows, in particular during the dry season. 
Frogs or amphibians are extremely sensitive indicators of environmental changes, as the uptake of oxygen and water through their skin can increase concentrations of pollutants, and the life cycle of frogs and toads exposes them to water and airborne contaminants. Amphibians are so sensitive to changes in the environment that scientists have likened them to a canary in a coalmine. 
It is known that droughts have large impacts on many of the forests of Central America, and the timing and severity of drought is often the strongest climatic influence on the ecology of tropical moist forests.
The Monteverde cloud forest provided the only known habitat for the extinct golden toad which, along with the harlequin frog and 20 other amphibious species, became extinct around 1986-87.
Mike and Nicola maintain that “future climate change is likely to exacerbate this situation with more frequent dry winters and warmer temperatures. By the 2050s, ‘dry’ winters will become up to twice as frequent and ‘warm’ winters will occur in between 50 and 100 per cent of years. This is likely to lead to many more periods during future winter dry seasons when clouds will be less prevalent over the mountain forests, thus seriously damaging this unique mountain habitat for amphibians and cloud-forest lizard species.”
Many species that are unable to adapt to the changes human are inflicting on the Earth, and are facing extinction. In fact, predictions estimate that up to 1 million species may become extinct as a result of climate change. The extinct Golden Toad and rapid demise of the Harlequin Frog are examples of how humans are significantly reducing Earth’s biodiversity.