Earliest Rainforest Frogs Preserved in Amber

One of four frogs preserved in amber for nearly 100 million years and formally described today in Scientific Reports. (Credit Lida Xing) Frogs in a rainforest? Sure, rainforests are home to tons of them. Nothing new there — except that researchers just found four, preserved in amber and nearly 100 million years old, that suggest frogs have been hanging out in that environment much longer than previously shown. Anura, the amphibian order that includes frogs and toads, has been around for at least 200 million years. But the frog fossil record is spotty, and the earliest examples of the animals appear to have lived in bodies of freshwater within semi-arid, or, at most, moderately wet environments. Until today, evidence suggested that the first frogs to call a tropical rainforest home were no more than 66 million years old. (If that date rings a bell, yep, it's right around the time ...