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Issue: Vol. 1228 No. 1: 9 Jun. 2006
Type: Articles
Published: 2006-06-09
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1228.1.3
Page range: 35–60
Abstract views: 40
PDF downloaded: 2

Species boundaries among barred river frogs, Mixophyes (Anura: Myobatrachidae) in north-eastern Australia, with descriptions of two new species

Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, 2308
Evolutionary Biology Unit, The South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia, 5000 Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia, 5000
Department of Zoology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 4811 Present Address: Vertebrates Department, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia, 5000
Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage, Wet Tropics District Office, P.O. Box 834, Atherton, Australia, 4883
Amphibia allozyme electrophoresis Anura Mixophyes morphology species boundaries

Abstract

Mixophyes are large ground-dwelling myobatrachid frogs from eastern Australia and New Guinea. We use analyses of allozyme frequencies, nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial DNA and morphology to define species boundaries in Mixophyes from the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of northern Queensland. The molecular analyses identify a minimum of three species in the region. Morphometric and meristic analyses corroborate these distinctions. The existence of two of these species was not previously suspected, and they are formally described herein.

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