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

Rommel R Rojas,Vinicius Tadeu De Carvalho,Robson W Avila,Marcelo Gordo,Paulo R Melo-Sampaio,Santiago R Ron,Emil José Hernández-Ruz,Leandra Cardoso Pinheiro,Tomas Hrbek,Antoine Fouquet,Richard C Vogt,Izeni Pires Farias,Juan C Chaparro

doi:10.7717/peerj.4941

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Amphibians are undergoing a drastic global decline (Beebee & Griffiths, 2005)
In recent years it has become evident that widespread species represent species complexes characterized by many deeply divergent lineages, e.g., Adenomera andreae, Dendropsophus minutus, Rhinella margaritifera, Scinax ruber, Pristimantis ockendeni, Pristimantis fenestratus, Engystomops petersi, Boana fasciata, Physalaemus petersii, Leptodactylus marmoratus and Osteocephalus taurinus (Fouquet et al, 2007a; Fouquet et al, 2007b; Padial & De La Riva, 2009; Angulo & Icochea, 2010; Funk, Caminer & Ron, 2012; Jungfer et al, 2013; Caminer & Ron, 2014; Fouquet et al, 2014; Gehara et al, 2014; Lourenco et al, 2015)
Our results suggest that the genus harbors more than twice as many species as current estimates

Summary

Introduction

Amphibians are undergoing a drastic global decline (Beebee & Griffiths, 2005). This decline is primarily attributable to habitat destruction, diseases (chytrid fungus) and global climate change (Collins, 2010). In Amazonia the primary threat is habitat destruction, the chytrid fungus has reached the Amazon basin (Valencia-Aguilar et al, 2015; Becker et al, 2016), and is starting to have an impact on Amazonian and Andean anurans (Lötters et al, 2005; Lötters et al, 2009; Catenazzi & Von May, 2014). Even without taking into account the high levels of crypsis or pseudocrypsis (morphological differences apparent but overlooked) in widespread Amazonian anurans, Amazonia has the highest diversity of amphibians on this planet (Jenkins, Pimm & Joppa, 2013)

Methods

Results

Conclusion