Costa Rica Has a REAL Kermit the Frog, Newly Discovered

Unless you live under a rock or don't own a television, you probably know who Kermit the Frog is. The beloved Muppet has captured the imaginations of the young and old alike for a stunning six decades, but we all know he's not actually real... right? Researchers have now revealed that a newly discovered species of frog in Costa Rica looks just like him, causing us to wonder if Kermit is more real than we ever thought.

Not only is the semi-translucent frog the same vibrant green as everyone's' froggy puppet friend, it also has a very unique set of eyes that boasts an uncanny semblance with Kermit's ping-pong peepers.

Most interesting of all (although unlike Kermit), these frogs are packed full of vibrant organs - ones you can see through its translucent white belly. The new species, recently discovered along the Caribbean slopes of Costa Rica, has been named Hyalinobatrachium dianae, and is a new member of the aptly named glassfrog family - a group of frogs who all boast that same see-through skin. (Scroll to read on...)

The Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center (CRARC) announced this discovery just last Friday, releasing stunning photos taken by researcher Brian Kubicki.

The photographer and researcher reportedly named the creature after his mother, Janet Diana Kubicki, earning it the common name "Diane's Bare-hearted Glassfrog." Additionally, he described the habitats, behavior, and taxonomy of the frog alongside researchers Stanley Salazar and Robert Puschendorf in the open access journal Zootaxa.

"Costa Rica is known to have 14 glassfrogs inhabiting its tiny national territory [but] the last time a new glassfrog was described from Costa Rica was back in 1973!" the CRARC added.

So how have experts missed it for so long? It may not be easy being green, but at least it makes you easy to hide. The vibrant green of H. dianae allowed it to effectively hide among the lush foliage of its native habitat. Even knowing what they were looking for, Kubicki and his colleagues were only able to find four in all - betrayed by their unique "advertisement calls" for mating in particular.

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