A Pan-Amazonian species delimitation: high species diversity within the genus Amazophrynella (Anura: Bufonidae)

Autor: Rommel R. Rojas, Antoine Fouquet, Santiago R. Ron, Emil José Hernández-Ruz, Paulo R. Melo-Sampaio, Juan C. Chaparro, Richard C. Vogt, Vinicius Tadeu de Carvalho, Leandra Cardoso Pinheiro, Robson W. Avila, Izeni Pires Farias, Marcelo Gordo, Tomas Hrbek
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: PeerJ, Vol 6, p e4941 (2018)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2167-8359
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4941
Popis: Amphibians are probably the most vulnerable group to climate change and climate-change associate diseases. This ongoing biodiversity crisis makes it thus imperative to improve the taxonomy of anurans in biodiverse but understudied areas such as Amazonia. In this study, we applied robust integrative taxonomic methods combining genetic (mitochondrial 16S, 12S and COI genes), morphological and environmental data to delimit species of the genus Amazophrynella (Anura: Bufonidae) sampled from throughout their pan-Amazonian distribution. Our study confirms the hypothesis that the species diversity of the genus is grossly underestimated. Our analyses suggest the existence of eighteen linages of which seven are nominal species, three Deep Conspecific Lineages, one Unconfirmed Candidate Species, three Uncategorized Lineages, and four Confirmed Candidate Species and described herein. We also propose a phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus and discuss its implications for historical biogeography of this Amazonian group.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals