Ancient South American Frogs Rafted to the Caribbean

Caribbean and Central American frogs have their ancestors to thank for their relaxing and picturesque habitats, according to a new study.

DNA evidence suggests that at least 29 million years ago, South American frogs hopped on some sort of natural rafts and drifted until reaching either Central America or the Caribbean islands, where they gave rise to new frog populations.

Very little has been understood about the evolutionary history of tiny frogs nicknamed “Eleuths” (named after their genus, Eleutherodactylines), which can be as tiny as two centimeters long and make up almost a third of all frogs living in South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

Some scientists had predicted that these frogs originated in South America and then crossed into Central America and the Caribbean via land bridges that had existed prior to breaking away about 80 million years ago...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070605/sc_livescience/ancientfrogsraftedtothecaribbean