Systematics and historical biogeography of Neotropical foam-nesting frogs of theAdenomera heyericlade (Leptodactylidae), with the description of six new Amazonian species

Abstract

A large proportion of the biodiversity of Amazonia, one of the most diverse rainforest areas in the world, is yet to be formally described. One such case is the Neotropical frog genus Adenomera. We here evaluate the species richness and historical biogeography of the Adenomera heyeri clade by integrating molecular phylogenetic and species delimitation analyses with morphological and acoustic data. Our results uncovered ten new candidate species with interfluve-associated distributions across Amazonia. In this study, six of these are formally named and described. The new species partly correspond to previously identified candidate lineages ‘sp. F’ and ‘sp. G’ and also to previously unreported lineages. Because of their rarity and unequal sampling effort of the A. heyeri clade across Amazonia, conservation assessments for the six newly described species are still premature. Regarding the biogeography of the A. heyeri clade, our data support a northern Amazonian origin with two independent dispersals into the South American Dry Diagonal. Although riverine barriers have a relevant role as environmental filters by isolating lineages in interfluves, dispersal rather than vicariance must have played a central role in the diversification of this frog clade.

Effectiveness of Fourier transform near‐infrared spectroscopy spectra for species identification of anurans fixed in formaldehyde and conserved in alcohol: A new tool for integrative taxonomy

“…We used sympatric individuals because practical questions are often about species assemblages and to reduce the probability of including cryptic species. Many species of Amazonian frogs that previously were thought to have wide distributions have recently been separated into geographically separated species (e.g., Peloso et al., 2018; and Carvalho et al., 2020).…”

Comparative osteology of the fossorial frogs of the genus Synapturanus (Anura, Microhylidae) with the description of three new species from the Eastern Guiana Shield

“…Most studies that have explored the question of how many species exist in particular groups of amphibians (e.g., Gehara et al, 2014;Fouquet et al, 2016;Kok et al, 2017;Vacher et al, 2017;Jaramillo et al, 2020), including Microhylidae (e.g., Peloso et al, 2014;de Sá et al, 2020), have uncovered high numbers of unnamed species. In many cases, the initial recognition of diversity is based on genetic data (commonly based on a single or very few genes), but after closer examination most of the genetic lineages also present conspicuous phenotypic diagnostic characters (Peloso et al, 2014;Fouquet et al, 2013;Kok et al, 2016;Carvalho et al, 2021). Therefore, it is likely that many new taxa will continue to be discovered through the integrative use of DNA sequences and detailed phenotypic analyses, progressively unveiling the unknown diversity of Amazonian amphibians.…”

Systematics and biogeography of theBoana albopunctataspecies group (Anura, Hylidae), with the description of two new species from Amazonia

“…The discovery of yet undescribed species in Amazonia is not surprising, since new species descriptions of squamates and anurans keep accumulating at a fast pace (e.g. Carvalho et al, 2020;Kok et al, 2018). In fact, almost all systematic investigation of broadly distributed groups in Amazonia led to the understanding that they actually represent species complexes, often hiding narrowly distributed and remotely diverging species within Amazonia (e.g., Fouquet et al, 2014;Vacher et al, 2020).…”