Evidence for the Recent Disappearance of the Okinawan Tree Frog Rhacophorus viridis on Yoronjima Island of the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan

Abstract

Recent skeletal remains of anurans, collected from Yoronjima Island of the Amami Group, Central Ryukyus, were identified by detailed comparisons with skeletal specimens representing all extant anuran species of Japan. As a result, four frog species including Rhacophorus viridis were recognized. This rhacophorid frog does not occur on Yoronjima Island at present, but its occurrence there by the middle of the 20th Century has been tentatively suspected on the basis of several museum specimens. Present finding offers a substantial support to this view, and confirms the first known case of island-level extinction of an extant native amphibian in the Ryukyu Archipelago.