Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Unveiling the geographic distribution of Boana pugnax (Schmidt, 1857) (Anura, Hylidae) in Venezuela: new state records, range extension, and potential distribution

Boana pugnax is a treefrog inhabiting open lowlands from southern Central America and northwestern South America. Its geographic distribution in Venezuela is poorly understood due, in part, its morphological similarity with B. xerophylla (with which is frequently confused) and the few localities documented. In order to increase the knowledge of the distribution of B. pugnax in the country, we examined the specimens of B. pugnax and B. xerophylla deposited in 4 Venezuelan museums, compiled the locality records of B. pugnax, and generated a model of potential distribution for species. We report 46 new localities for the species in Venezuela, including 8 new state records, which increases considerably its range extension

Acoustic, morphometric, and ecological data of glassfrogs (Centrolenida)

We obtained acoustic data from analyses of audio recordings gathered from personal and museum collections for 67 species and from the bibliography for 5 species. We obtained morphometric data for 67 glassfrog species from the literature, and for 11 species from fellow researchers. We compiled the predominant calling site of each species from the literature (72 species) and complemented it with field observations provided by fellow researchers. We compiled parental care (i.e., prolonged attendance) data from Delia et al. (2017). See Escalona et al., Journal of Evolutionary Biology, for more details

Data from: Neotropical frogs and mating songs: the evolution of advertisement calls in glassfrogs.

Anurans emit advertisement calls with the purpose of attracting mates and repelling conspecific competitors. The evolution of call traits is expected to be associated with the evolution of anatomical and behavioral traits due to the physics of call emission and transmission. Additionally, since vocalizing might imply a trade-off with investment in parental care, the evolution of calls is expected to trade-off with parental care. Here, we investigated the association between body size, calling site, parental care and call properties (call duration, number of notes, peak frequency, frequency bandwidth and call structure) of the advertisement calls of glassfrogs (Centrolenidae)—a family of Neotropical, leaf-dwelling anurans—using phylogenetic comparative methods. We also explored the tempo and mode of evolution of these traits and compared them with those of three morphological traits associated with body size, locomotion and feeding. We generated and compiled acoustic data for 72 glassfrog species (46% of total species richness), including representatives of all genera. We found that almost all acoustic traits have significant, but generally modest, phylogenetic signal. Peak frequency of calls is significantly associated with body-size, while call structure is significantly associated with calling site and paternal care. Thus, the evolution of body size and calling site could constrain call evolution. The estimated disparity of acoustic traits was larger than that of morphological traits and the peak in disparity of acoustic traits generally occurred later in the evolution of glassfrogs, indicating a historically recent outset of the acoustic divergence in this clade