Age, Size, and Growth of the Turkish Endemic Frog Pelophylax Caralitanus (Anura: Ranidae)

Abstract

Pelophylax caralitanus is a medium-sized frog that is endemic to the upland Lake District of south-central Turkey and currently identified as a threatened species as a result of overharvesting and habitat modification. In this report, demographic data are provided for four major lakeside populations of this species based on a skeletochronological analysis of bone growth in large samples of frogs that were captured and released during 2011 and 2013. Adult males (aged 2-9 years) and females (aged 2-10 years) ranged in size from 66 to 105 mm snout-vent length (SVL) and 65 to 110 mm SVL, respectively, and typically attained sexual maturity in their second (low-elevation sites) or third (high-elevation sites) summer of growth following metamorphosis. The four populations exhibited differences in growth rate and age at sexual maturity, which appeared to reflect differences in the average monthly temperature and length of the growth season rather than elevation per se, that is, warmer temperatures and longer growth seasons resulted in smaller adults. All populations had a similar overall age structure, with approximately equal frequencies of individuals in the five age and size classes following maturity. Anat Rec, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Body size, age structure and survival rates in two populations of the Beyşehir frog Pelophylax caralitanus

“…(P. ridibundus and P. bedriagae) that occur in Turkey (Table 2). We found the mean and maximum ages of females were higher than those of males which means female individuals live longer than male individuals and this information is consistent with literature (Tsiora and Kyriakopoulou-Sklavounou 2002;Socha and Ogielska 2010;Çiçek et al 2011;Gül et al 2011;Erişmiş 2018).…”

“…In contrast to Erişmiş (2018), we estimated the age of sexual maturity as 2 and 3 years for males and females, respectively. Although Erişmiş (2018) accepted individuals as subadults with an SVL less than Figure 4. Annual growth rate changes of males and females of P. caralitanus between populations 65 mm, we found mature individuals less than 65 mm of SVL in both populations (Table 1).…”

“…Growth was estimated according to the Bertalanffy equation (Bertalanffy 1938) which was previously used in several studies on amphibians (Miaud et al 2001;Gül et al 2011;Üzüm et al 2011;Erişmiş 2018). The modified growth formula is; SVL t = SVL max -(SVL max -SVL met )e -k (t-tmet) where SVL t is the average body length at age t; SVL max is the asymptotic maximum body length; SVL met is the body length at metamorphosis that was used to calculated newly metamorphosed individuals at the end of the summer (25-30 August 2018) (fixed to mean 32.7 ± 3.415 mm for the Burdur population and 31.9 ± 3.625 mm for the Işıklı population); k is the body growth rate coefficient (units are yr -1 ) that defines the shape of curve; t met is the age at metamorphosis (0.3).…”

“…Annual growth rate (AGR) is the rate of the difference between the mean SVL of the individuals in each age group i and the mean SVL in each age group i-1 (AGR= the mean SVL of the Age i -the mean SVL of the Age i-1 / The mean SVL of the Age i-1 ). This formula was obtained from Erişmiş (2018). All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS ver.…”

Evaluation of DNA damage by Comet Assay in populations of endemic Beyşehir frog Pelophylax caralitanus (Arıkan,1988)

“…While it is remain locally abundant at some sites, overall the Beyşehir frog population is in rapid decline and is now considered an endangered species [(IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature)-(the IUCN Red List of threatened Species -2016)]. Although a number of studies have investigated the distribution, demographic studies, morphometry, serology, The fungal pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) and demographic data of P. caralitanus (e.g., Arıkan, 1988;Budak et al, 2000;Kaya et al, 2002;Erismis and Chinsamy, 2010;Erismis et al, 2013;Erismis, 2018), evaluation of DNA damage detected by micronuclei and comet assay of Turkey anurans are few (Gürkan et al, 2012;Erismis et al, 2013). The aim of the present study was to develop the first information concerning the possible biological effects of pollution from clastogenic chemicals in three lakes on endemic Beyşehir Frog (P. caralitanus) in Lake District of southwestern Anatolia, Turkey.…”