Revalidation of Pristimantis brevicrus (Anura, Craugastoridae) with taxonomic comments on a widespread Amazonian direct-developing frog

H. Mauricio Ortega-Andrade; Octavio R. Rojas-Soto; Alejandro Espinosa de los Monteros; Jorge H. Valencia; Morley Read; Santiago R. Ron

Revalidation of Pristimantis brevicrus (Anura, Craugastoridae) with taxonomic comments on a widespread Amazonian direct-developing frog

H. Mauricio Ortega-Andrade^*, Octavio R. Rojas-Soto, Alejandro Espinosa de los Monteros, Jorge H. Valencia, Morley Read, Santiago R. Ron

^*Corresponding author for this work

Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Problems associated with delimiting species are particularly pronounced in taxa with high species-level diversity, as occurs in Pristimantis frogs. Herein, we resurrect Pristimantis brevicrus, nov. comb., from the synonymy of P. altamazonicus, a widespread species in the upper Amazon Basin, based on morphological, acoustic and genetic evidence. Both species are sympatric along the Upper Amazon Basin of Ecuador and northern Peru, up to ~1450 m. Phylogenetic analyses reveals that P. altamazonicus and P. brevicrus are sister taxa in a well-supported clade with P. diadematus and two unconfirmed candidate species. Pristimantis altamazonicus is distinguished from P. brevicrus by having a differentiated tympanic annulus, a smooth dorsum with scattered small tubercles towards the flanks, weakly areolate skin on the venter, red to bright orange groin with black mottling, on hidden surfaces of thighs (bluish-white to yellowish-white in P. brevicrus) of living specimens. The recognition of P. brevicrus and two unconfirmed candidate species suggest that the diversity of these frogs is inadequately understood, highlighting the need for more integrative taxonomic reviews of Amazonian amphibians.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	81-97
Number of pages	17
Journal	Herpetological Journal
Volume	27
Issue number	1
State	Published - Jan 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, British Herpetological Society. All rights reserved.

Funding

For laboratory assistance and allowing access to herpetological collections under their management we thank M.E. Barragán and K. Garzón (Fundación Herpetológica Gustavo Orcés, Ecuador), G. Gagliardi Urrutia (IIAP-Peru), H. Ortega and J.C. Cusi (Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos-Peru), E. Pezo (Museo de Zoología, Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana), M. González (Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Ricardo Palma), P. Venegas and V. Durán (CORBIDI-Peru), J.C. Chaparro (Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco - Peru), P. Herrera (Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado-Bolivia), J.D. Lynch (Instituto de Ciencias Naturales of Universidad Nacional, Colombia), F. Forero (Instituto Alexander von Humboldt, Colombia), D. Frost, D. Kizirian, and R. Pascocello (American Museum of Natural History), R. McDiarmid and K. de Queiroz (National Museum of Natural History), J. Rosado and C. Weisel (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University), and to R. Brown, W.E. Duellman and M. Buehler (Natural History Museum of The Universtity of Kansas). We are indebted to G. Gagliardi, D. Cannatella, J.D. Lynch, W.E. Duellman, E. Lehr, J. C. Chaparro, D. F. Cisneros-Heredia, J. Padial, A. Crawford, N. Pinto-Sánchez, O. Rojas, C. Torres, D. Rodriguez, I. de la Riva, J.C. Chaparro, P. Venegas, V. Durán, and Y. Sagredo, who generously shared information, photographs and promote discussions on specimens collected in South America. HMOA especially thank I. Morillo and A. Suárez (Jatun Sacha Biological Reserve), F. Armas (Limoncocha Biological Reserve), and Tseremp Timias (Nacionalidad Shiwiar del Ecuador) for supporting free room and lodging through fieldwork in Ecuador, and C. Alarcón, P. Mokondoko, O. Rojas and M. Odicio by assist fieldwork in Ecuador and Peru. Especially thanks to L. Jaramillo, D. Paucar, M. Caminer, D. Chávez, F. Ayala, J. Nolasco, and G. Castillo by assistance in laboratory work. All original photographs of the holotype of P. altamazonicus is copyrighted by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Museum of Comparative Museum, Harvard University. HMOA Doctorate research is supported by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT, Mexico, No. 275448/224620) and Secretaría Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT, Ecuador). Molecular sequences from QCAZ were financially supported by founds from SENESCYT (Iniciativa Arca de Noé) and PUCE-DGA (SR, as Research Leader). The Collection Study Grant Program, Richard Gilder Graduate School, granted founds to HMOA in 2009 to visit at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and by a grant from the Comité Académico de Posgrado of the Instituto de Ecología A.C. to visit the Kansas Museum of Natural History (KU) in 2014. This manuscript has been greatly improved by valuable comments by Jeff Streicher and Jose Padial, and an additional anonymous reviewer. The Ecuadorian Ministerio de Ambiente provided research and collection permits numbers 001-12-IC-FAU-DNB/MA and Nº001-IC-FAU/FLO-DRFN-P/MA.

Funders	Funder number
Comité Académico de Posgrado of the Instituto de Ecología A.C.
Fundación Herpetológica Gustavo Orcés
G. Gagliardi Urrutia
IIAP-Peru
Instituto de Ciencias Naturales of Universidad Nacional
Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado-Bolivia
Museum of Comparative Museum
Museum of Comparative Zoology
PUCE-DGA
Tseremp Timias
Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco
Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
American Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Natural History
Harvard University
University of Kansas
Ministerio del Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica	001-12-IC-FAU-DNB/MA, Nº001-IC-FAU/FLO-DRFN-P/MA
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología	275448/224620
Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos

Keywords

Amazonia
Craugastoridae
Ecuador
Frogs
Integrative taxonomy
Peru
Unconfirmed candidate species

Cite this

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title = "Revalidation of Pristimantis brevicrus (Anura, Craugastoridae) with taxonomic comments on a widespread Amazonian direct-developing frog",

abstract = "Problems associated with delimiting species are particularly pronounced in taxa with high species-level diversity, as occurs in Pristimantis frogs. Herein, we resurrect Pristimantis brevicrus, nov. comb., from the synonymy of P. altamazonicus, a widespread species in the upper Amazon Basin, based on morphological, acoustic and genetic evidence. Both species are sympatric along the Upper Amazon Basin of Ecuador and northern Peru, up to ~1450 m. Phylogenetic analyses reveals that P. altamazonicus and P. brevicrus are sister taxa in a well-supported clade with P. diadematus and two unconfirmed candidate species. Pristimantis altamazonicus is distinguished from P. brevicrus by having a differentiated tympanic annulus, a smooth dorsum with scattered small tubercles towards the flanks, weakly areolate skin on the venter, red to bright orange groin with black mottling, on hidden surfaces of thighs (bluish-white to yellowish-white in P. brevicrus) of living specimens. The recognition of P. brevicrus and two unconfirmed candidate species suggest that the diversity of these frogs is inadequately understood, highlighting the need for more integrative taxonomic reviews of Amazonian amphibians.",

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AU - Ortega-Andrade, H. Mauricio

AU - Rojas-Soto, Octavio R.

AU - de los Monteros, Alejandro Espinosa

AU - Valencia, Jorge H.

AU - Read, Morley

AU - Ron, Santiago R.

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N2 - Problems associated with delimiting species are particularly pronounced in taxa with high species-level diversity, as occurs in Pristimantis frogs. Herein, we resurrect Pristimantis brevicrus, nov. comb., from the synonymy of P. altamazonicus, a widespread species in the upper Amazon Basin, based on morphological, acoustic and genetic evidence. Both species are sympatric along the Upper Amazon Basin of Ecuador and northern Peru, up to ~1450 m. Phylogenetic analyses reveals that P. altamazonicus and P. brevicrus are sister taxa in a well-supported clade with P. diadematus and two unconfirmed candidate species. Pristimantis altamazonicus is distinguished from P. brevicrus by having a differentiated tympanic annulus, a smooth dorsum with scattered small tubercles towards the flanks, weakly areolate skin on the venter, red to bright orange groin with black mottling, on hidden surfaces of thighs (bluish-white to yellowish-white in P. brevicrus) of living specimens. The recognition of P. brevicrus and two unconfirmed candidate species suggest that the diversity of these frogs is inadequately understood, highlighting the need for more integrative taxonomic reviews of Amazonian amphibians.

AB - Problems associated with delimiting species are particularly pronounced in taxa with high species-level diversity, as occurs in Pristimantis frogs. Herein, we resurrect Pristimantis brevicrus, nov. comb., from the synonymy of P. altamazonicus, a widespread species in the upper Amazon Basin, based on morphological, acoustic and genetic evidence. Both species are sympatric along the Upper Amazon Basin of Ecuador and northern Peru, up to ~1450 m. Phylogenetic analyses reveals that P. altamazonicus and P. brevicrus are sister taxa in a well-supported clade with P. diadematus and two unconfirmed candidate species. Pristimantis altamazonicus is distinguished from P. brevicrus by having a differentiated tympanic annulus, a smooth dorsum with scattered small tubercles towards the flanks, weakly areolate skin on the venter, red to bright orange groin with black mottling, on hidden surfaces of thighs (bluish-white to yellowish-white in P. brevicrus) of living specimens. The recognition of P. brevicrus and two unconfirmed candidate species suggest that the diversity of these frogs is inadequately understood, highlighting the need for more integrative taxonomic reviews of Amazonian amphibians.

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KW - Unconfirmed candidate species

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Revalidation of Pristimantis brevicrus (Anura, Craugastoridae) with taxonomic comments on a widespread Amazonian direct-developing frog

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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