An extraordinary new species of melanophryniscus (anura, bufonidae) from Southeastern Brazil

We describe a new species of bufonid from a lowland, sandy soil, restinga habitat in the state of Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil. Based on the shared occurrence of putative morphological synapomorphies of Melanophryniscus and the results of a phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences of a broad sample of bufonids, and other anurans, we assign the new species to Melanophryniscus. The new species possesses several peculiar character states that distinguish it from all other Melanophryniscus including, but not limited to: fingers II, III, and V much reduced; nuptial pad with few enlarged, brown-colored spines on medial margin of finger II; seven presacral vertebrae, the last fused with the sacrum; and ventral humeral crest prominent, forming a spinelike projection. © Copyright © American Museum of Natural History 2012.Fil: Peloso, Pedro L.V.. American Museum of Natural History; Estados UnidosFil: Faivovich, Julián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. American Museum of Natural History; Estados UnidosFil: Grant, Taran. American Museum of Natural History; Estados UnidosFil: Gasparini, João Luiz. Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo; BrasilFil: Haddad, Célio F.B.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasi

Multiple connections between Amazonia and Atlantic Forest shaped the T phylogenetic and morphological diversity of Chiasmocleis Mehely, 1904 (Anura: Microhylidae: Gastrophryninae)

Chiasmocleis is the most species-rich genus of Neotropical microhylids. Herein, we provide the first comprehensive multilocus phylogeny for the genus, including all but 3 of the 34 recognized species and multiple individuals per species. We discuss cryptic speciation, species discovery, patterns of morphological evolution, and provide a historical biogeographic analysis to account for the current distribution of the genus. Diversification of Chiasmocleis from other New World microhylids began during the Eocene, app. 40 mya, in forested areas, and current diversity seems to be a product of recurrent connections between the Atlantic Forest and Amazonia. Small-sized species evolved independently three times in Chiasmocleis. Furthermore, the extremely small-bodied (i.e. miniaturized) species with associated loss of digits, phalanges, and pectoral girdle cartilages evolved only once and are restricted to Amazonia. Using the phylogeny, we recognized three subgenera within Chiasmocleis: Chiasmocleis Méhely, 1904, Relictus subg. nov., and Syncope Walker, 1973. The recognition of the subgenus Syncopeinforms future research on patterns of miniaturization in the genus, and the subgenus Relictus highlights isolation of an endemic and species-poor lineage to the Atlantic Forest, early (about 40 mya) in the history of Chiasmocleis

Data from: The impact of anchored phylogenomics and taxon sampling on phylogenetic inference in narrow-mouthed frogs (Anura, Microhylidae)

Despite considerable progress in unravelling the phylogenetic relationships of microhylid frogs, relationships among subfamilies remain largely unstable and many genera are not demonstrably monophyletic. Here, we used five alternative combinations of DNA sequence data (ranging from seven loci for 48 taxa to up to 73 loci for as many as 142 taxa) generated using the anchored phylogenomics sequencing method (66 loci, derived from conserved genome regions, for 48 taxa) and Sanger sequencing (seven loci for up to 142 taxa) to tackle this problem. We assess the effects of character sampling, taxon sampling, analytical methods and assumptions in phylogenetic inference of microhylid frogs. The phylogeny of microhylids shows high susceptibility to different analytical methods and datasets used for the analyses. Clades inferred from maximum-likelihood are generally more stable across datasets than those inferred from parsimony. Parsimony trees inferred within a tree-alignment framework are generally better resolved and better supported than those inferred within a similarity-alignment framework, even under the same cost matrix (equally weighted) and same treatment of gaps (as a fifth nucleotide state). We discuss potential causes for these differences in resolution and clade stability among discovery operations. We also highlight the problem that commonly used algorithms for model-based analyses do not explicitly model insertion and deletion events (i.e. gaps are treated as missing data). Our results corroborate the monophyly of Microhylidae and most currently recognized subfamilies but fail to provide support for relationships among subfamilies. Several taxonomic updates are provided, including naming of two new subfamilies, both monotypic

The phylogeny of dendropsophini (anura: hylidae: hylinae)

The relationships of the hyline tribe Dendropsophini remain poorly studied, with most published analyses dealing with few of the species groups of Dendropsophus. In order to test the monophyly of Dendropsophini, its genera, and the species groups currently recognized in Dendropsophus, we performed a total evidence phylogenetic analysis. The molecular dataset included sequences of three mitochondrial and five nuclear genes from 210 terminals, including 12 outgroup species, the two species of Xenohyla, and 93 of the 108 recognized species of Dendropsophus. The phenomic dataset includes 46 terminals, one per species (34 Dendropsophus, one Xenohyla, and 11 outgroup species). Our results corroborate the monophyly of Dendropsophini and the reciprocal monophyly of Dendropsophus and Xenohyla. Some species groups of Dendropsophus are paraphyletic (the D. microcephalus, D. minimus, and D. parviceps groups, and the D. rubicundulus clade). On the basis of our results, we recognize nine species groups; for three of them (D. leucophyllatus, D. microcephalus, and D. parviceps groups) we recognize some nominal clades to highlight specific morphology or relationships and facilitate species taxonomy. We further discuss the evolution of oviposition site selection, where our results show multiple instances of independent evolution of terrestrial egg clutches during the evolutionary history of Dendropsophus.Fil: Orrico, Victor. Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz; BrasilFil: Grant, Taran. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Faivovich, Julián. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Rivera Correa, Mauricio. Universidad de Antioquia; Colombia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Rada, Marco A.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Lyra, Mariana L.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Cassini, Carla S.. Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz; BrasilFil: Valdujo, Paula H.. Laboratório de Ecologia Da Paisagem; BrasilFil: Schargel, Walter E.. University of Texas; Estados UnidosFil: Machado, Denis J.. North Carolina State University; Estados UnidosFil: Wheeler, Ward C.. American Museum of Natural History; Estados UnidosFil: Barrio-Amorós, Cesar. Universidad de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Loebmann, Daniel. Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande; BrasilFil: Moravec, Jiří. Museo Nacional de Praga ; República ChecaFil: Zina, Juliana. Universidade Estadual Do Sudoeste Da Bahia; BrasilFil: Solé, Mirco. Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz; BrasilFil: Sturaro, Marcelo J.. Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Peloso, Pedro L.V.. Universidade Federal do Pará; BrasilFil: Suarez, Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas; ArgentinaFil: Haddad, Célio Fernando B.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasi