Integrative inventory of Bolivia’s lowland anurans reveals hidden diversity

Abstract

Pfenninger, M. (2011). Integrative inventory of Bolivia's lowland anurans reveals hidden diversity. -Zoologica Scripta, 40, 567-583. We conducted an integrative species inventory and re-evaluated the taxonomic status of anuran populations from lowland Bolivia that we putatively ordered to 59 a priori species. The analyses of own and published data of mtDNA (16S), bioacoustics, and adult and tadpole morphology, however, revealed a total number of 69 divergent lineages. With the data at hand, the taxonomic assignment of only 27 from 69 lineages (39.1%) to nominal species was supported, the assignment of nine lineages (14.5% of 69) was attributed to incertae sedis, and another 33 divergent lineages (47.8%) could not yet be assigned to any species. Of those lineages, 16 were confirmed as divergent to other species by at least two of the following lines of evidence: high genetic divergence, strong differences in advertisement calls, morphology or ecology. These 'confirmed genealogical lineages' are suggested to belong to good species following standards of divergence of the group under study, many of them probably being candidates for formal descriptions. Another 17 lineages were considered as 'unconfirmed genealogical lineages' showing significant difference to all other described species only in one line of evidence. Within 6 of our 69 revealed lineages, we detected deep conspecific lineages. Some species in this study showed remarkable intraspecific call variation not congruent with genetic divergence. Our results suggest that many Bolivian anuran species that are assigned to supposedly 'widespread' South American species apparently belong to previously unrecognized lineages with supposedly smaller distribution areas. Our data on a regional scale urge for an integrative taxonomic review of these and other widespread lowland Neotropical anuran species, as many of them may actually represent species complexes. However, a complete inventory of Neotropical amphibians apparently is a far more complex challenge than previously thought, and only cooperative, supraregional and cross-country approaches will reveal the actual amphibian diversity in the Neotropics. We postulate that Bolivia's lowlands can be assessed as a region joining distinct regional faunal diversity and thus deserve reinforced conservation and research efforts to fulfil its unique situation as climatic and biogeographic transition zone.

Systematics of the Neotropical GenusLeptodactylusFitzinger, 1826 (Anura: Leptodactylidae): Phylogeny, the Relevance of Non-molecular Evidence, and Species Accounts

“…This placement agrees with the results of Fouquet et al (2013), although those authors indicated that adequate sampling within Leptodactylus, Adenomera, and Hydrolaetare was needed to test the monophyly of these genera. Our results also agree with Jansen et al (2011), although only if their neighbor-joining tree is re-rooted on any leiuperid instead of within Leptodactylus. The close relationship between Hydrolaetare and Leptodactylus is not unexpected.…”

The use of bioacoustics in anuran taxonomy: theory, terminology, methods and recommendations for best practice

“…When advertisement calls are described for species that have already been named, it is recommendable to obtain recordings from their type locality (as well as obtaining topotypic voucher specimens), as this increases the chances of actually describing the call of a particular nominal species. However, in the latter case, careful morphological comparisions of newly collected call vouchers and original type specimens is warranted, as (cryptic) diversity at a single locality can be unexpectably high, particularly in the tropics (e.g., Jansen et al 2011;Gehara et al 2014;Fouquet et al 2016).…”

To name or not to name: Criteria to promote economy of change in Linnaean classification schemes

“…At the level of species, a similar revolution is taking place with the incorporation and popularization of molecular data as a crucial component of integrative taxonomy (Dayrat 2005;Padial et al 2010). This led to an enormous acceleration in the rate of species discovery in numerous groups of organisms (e.g., Bickford et al 2007;Pfenninger & Schwenk 2007;Fontaneto et al 2008;Fonseca et al 2010;Poulin 2011;Stuart et al 2006;Oliver et al 2009;Vieites et al, 2009;Jansen et al 2011;Funk et al 2012). Estimates usually agree that only a fraction of Earth's species diversity has so far been inventoried and taxonomically described, with a possible 86% of existing species on Earth and 91% of species in the oceans still awaiting description (Mora et al 2011).…”