Scientists find new frog species and it looks like Kermit

Photos of a new species of glass frog discovered in Costa Rica have gone viral, as media outlets are claiming the creature bears a striking resemblance to Kermit the Frog.

The man behind Kermit the Frog and “The Muppet Show” is getting a permanent tribute in New York, nearly 30 years after his death. Source: AAP

A new species of glass frog has been discovered in the Talamanca mountain range in Costa Rica. According to the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Centre, the Hyalinobatrachium Dianae was named after the mother of the frog’s discoverer Dr. Brian Kubicki, Janet Diane Kubicki.

However, the glass frog holds little resemblance to Dr. Kubicki’s mother; instead there are striking similarities between the H. Dianae and Kermit the Frog.

The H. Dianae is lime green in appearance, with a translucent underside, displaying its internal organs. Similar to its Muppet counterpart, it has bright white and black eyes.

Compared to other glass frogs, the H. Dianae has significant morphological and genetic differences, though it has been determined the frog is not made out of felt and controlled by a puppeteer named Jim Hensen.

The discovery of the Kermit lookalike was published in a zoology journal in February, becoming the first glass frog to be found in Costa Rica since 1973.

Herpetologists speculated the reason behind the belated discovery was due to the H. Dianae’s unique mating call, which Dr. Kubicki told Costa Rican newspaper Tico Times, sounds more like an insect rather than a frog.

Or perhaps the H. Dianae has been hiding in plain sight on our TV screens all along.