Abstract
We describe two new species of salamanders of the genus Oedipina, subgenus Oedopinola, from two localities on the northwestern foothills of Ecuador, at elevations between 921 and 1,067 m. These are the southernmost members of the genus. We examined different museum collections and we found just three specimens of Oedipina from Ecuador, obtained throughout the history of herpetological collections in the country. We identify two of the three specimens as new species, but refrain from assigning a specific identity to the third, pending further study. Oedipina villamizariorum sp. n. is a medium-sized member of the genus, with a narrow, relatively pointed head and blunt snout; dorsolaterally oriented eyes, moderate in size; and digits that are moderately long and having pointed tips. Oedipina ecuatoriana sp. n., somewhat larger, has a narrow head and broadly rounded snout; this new species differs from all known Oedipina by the distinctive presence of paired prefrontal bones and a reduced phalangeal formula: 0-0-1-0; 0-1-2-1-1. We provide detailed descriptions of the osteology of both new species. Finally, we present a phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus, including one of the two new species, based on partial sequences of mitochondrial DNA.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e9934 |
| Journal | PeerJ |
| Volume | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2 Oct 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:Copyright 2020 Reyes-Puig et al.
Funding
Carolina Reyes-Puig’s work was supported by the project ‘‘Programa de Inventarios y Monitoreo del Sistema de Reservas EcoMinga’’, executed by the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad and funded by University of Basel Botanical Garden, Rainforest Trust, and Fundación EcoMinga through the collaboration of Heinz Schneider, Lou Jost, Juan Pablo Reyes-Puig and Javier Robayo. Work by Carolina Reyes-Puig and Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia was supported by Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ (projects HUBI ID 41 ‘‘Nuevas especies de anfibios de Ecuador’’, 48 ‘‘Taxonomía, Biogeografía y Conservación de Anfibios y Reptiles’’, ID 1057 ‘‘Impact of habitat changes on the biological diversity of the northern tropical Andes’’) and by Programa ‘‘Becas de Excelencia’’, Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT), Ecuador. Mario Yánez-Muñoz’s and Claudia Koch’s research is supported by the ‘‘Programa de cooperación Trilateral Alemania-Brasil-Ecuador,’’ financed by international cooperation GIZ. Funding for fieldwork was provided by a Natural Environment Research Council grant to Jeffrey W. Streicher (NE/R002150/1). Fieldwork by Ramachadran Kotharambath was made possible by a grant from International Travel Support, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Laboratory work at the QCAZ museum was funded by Secretaría Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación del Ecuador SENESCYT (Arca de Noé initiative; Santiago Ron and Omar Torres principal investigators) and grants from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Dirección General Académica. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Universidad San Francisco de Quito | |
| Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador | |
| NE/R002150/1 | |
| 1057 |
Keywords
- Choco
- Cryptic diversity
- Endemism
- Foothills of western Ecuador
- Oedopinola
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