Other nonflying arboreal frogs can also descend, but only at angles greater than 45°, which is referred to as parachuting.
[2][1] This parallel evolution is seen as an adaptation to their life in trees, high above the ground.
Characteristics of the Old-World species include "enlarged hands and feet, full webbing between all fingers and toes, lateral skin flaps on the arms and legs, and reduced weight per snout-vent length".
Alfred Russel Wallace made one of the earliest reports of a flying frog.
[3] The species he observed was later described by George Albert Boulenger as Rhacophorus nigropalmatus.