Integrative taxonomic reassessment of Odontophrynus populations in Argentina and phylogenetic relationships within Odontophrynidae (Anura).

Amphibians are the most vulnerable vertebrates to biodiversity loss mediated by habitat destruction, climate change and diseases. Informed conservation management requires improving the taxonomy of anurans to assess reliably the species' geographic range. The genus Odontophrynus that is geographically refined to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay includes currently 12 nominal species with many populations of uncertain taxonomic assignment and subsequently unclear geographic ranges. In this study, we applied integrative taxonomic methods combining molecular (mitochondrial 16S gene), allozyme, morphological and bioacoustic data to delimit species of the genus Odontophrynus sampled from throughout Argentina where most species occur. The combined evidence demonstrates one case of cryptic diversity and another of overestimation of species richness. The populations referred to as O. americanus comprise at least three species. In contrast, O. achalensis and O. barrioi represent junior synonyms of the phenotypically plastic species O. occidentalis. We conclude that each of the four species occurring in Argentina inhabits medium to large areas. The Red List classification is currently "Least Concern". We also propose a phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus and associated genera Macrogenioglottus and Proceratophrys (Odontophrynidae).

Idiosyncratic responses to climate-driven forest fragmentation and marine incursions in reed frogs from Central Africa and the Gulf of Guinea Islands.

Organismal traits interact with environmental variation to mediate how species respond to shared landscapes. Thus, differences in traits related to dispersal ability or physiological tolerance may result in phylogeographic discordance among co-distributed taxa, even when they are responding to common barriers. We quantified climatic suitability and stability, and phylogeographic divergence within three reed frog species complexes across the Guineo-Congolian forests and Gulf of Guinea archipelago of Central Africa to investigate how they responded to a shared climatic and geological history. Our species-specific estimates of climatic suitability through time are consistent with temporal and spatial heterogeneity in diversification among the species complexes, indicating that differences in ecological breadth may partly explain these idiosyncratic patterns. Likewise, we demonstrated that fluctuating sea levels periodically exposed a land bridge connecting Bioko Island with the mainland Guineo-Congolian forest and that habitats across the exposed land bridge likely enabled dispersal in some species, but not in others. We did not find evidence that rivers are biogeographic barriers across any of the species complexes. Despite marked differences in the geographic extent of stable climates and temporal estimates of divergence among the species complexes, we recovered a shared pattern of intermittent climatic suitability with recent population connectivity and demographic expansion across the Congo Basin. This pattern supports the hypothesis that genetic exchange across the Congo Basin during humid periods, followed by vicariance during arid periods, has shaped regional diversity. Finally, we identified many distinct lineages among our focal taxa, some of which may reflect incipient or unrecognized species.

Tropical anurans mature early and die young: Evidence from eight Afromontane Hyperolius species and a meta-analysis.

Age- and size-related life-history traits of anuran amphibians are thought to vary systematically with latitude and altitude. Because the available data base is strongly biased towards temperate-zone species, we provide new estimates on eight afrotropical Reed Frog species. A meta-analysis of the demographic traits in 44 tropical anuran species aims to test for the predicted clinal variation and to contrast results with variation detected in temperate-zone species. The small-sized reed frogs reach sexual maturity during the first or second year of life, but longevity does not exceed three to four years. Latitudinal effects on demographic life-history traits are not detectable in tropical anurans, and altitudinal effects are limited to a slight size reduction at higher elevations. Common features of anuran life-history in the tropics are early sexual maturation at small size and low longevity resulting in low lifetime fecundity. This pattern contrasts with that found in temperate-zone anurans which mature later at larger size and grow considerably older yielding greater lifetime fecundity than in the tropics. Latitudinal and altitudinal contraction of the yearly activity period shape the evolution of life-history traits in the temperate region, while trait variation in the tropics seems to be driven by distinct, not yet identified selective forces.