The photographer Andres Novales @NovalesWildlife posted on his twitter account on March 20: “We celebrate #WorldFrogDay with one of the most beautiful frogs that exist. The Cruziohyla calcalifer, found last night in the Colombian Chocó”.
The splendid frog (Cruziohyla calcarifer) is a species of anuran amphibian in the Hylidae family of tree frogs. It is distributed throughout Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. It inhabits the tree canopy of lowland primary tropical forests, at altitudes below 500 m. It’s nocturnal.
In the skin of the splendid frog (Cruziohyla calcarifer) a new family of peptides (molecules formed by the union of several amino acids) with antimicrobial properties was discovered. This new group of molecules, called cruzioseptins, serves to protect against bacteria and yeast.
With a molecule extracted from the skin of this amphibian, a new class of antibiotics and antifungicides for medicinal use could be manufactured.