Taxonomy and Systematics
The scientific name derives from the Sanskrit word nasika (nose) referring to the pointed snout, batrachus Greek for frog, and Sahyadri as the local name of the mountain range where it was found - the Western Ghats.
The frog is a living fossil and was initially assigned to a new family of its own, Nasikabatrachidae, but is sometimes included within the family Sooglossidae whose core members are found on the Seychelles islands.
The family Sooglossidae have their main distribution in the Seychelles islands and this relatedness suggests that their common ancestors lived around 100 million years ago, at a time when India, the Seychelles and Madagascar were connected before splitting up due to continental drift.
Read more about this topic: Purple Frog