The species were differentiated due to molecular markers from DNA analysis which also indicated that the endemic group had evolved in this habitat approximately 85 million years ago. The Western Ghats is a biodiversity hotspot for amphibians with 75 new amphibian species having been discovered in the last fifteen years alone. This discovery raised the number of endemic amphibian species in the Western Ghats to 181. However, S.D. Biju, the leader of the research team, stated that the potential for discovering new amphibian species is far from exhausted, and as many as a hundred new species could be awaiting discovery.