The poison frog that fooled scientists for decades

Researchers discovered that a poison frog species described decades ago was based on a mix-up involving the wrong museum specimen. The frog tied to the official species name turned out to be brown, not the colorful animal shown in the original photo. After tracing old records and images, scientists corrected the error and reclassified the frog as part of an already-known species. The case underscores how vital museum collections are—and how even small mistakes can ripple through science for years.