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Type: Article
Published: 2013-01-03
Page range: 79–95
Abstract views: 57
PDF downloaded: 28

A new species of Amazophrynella (Anura:Bufonidae) from the southwestern part of the Brazilian Guiana Shield

Laboratório de Evolucão e Genética Animal, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Av. Gen. Rodrigo Octávio Jordão Ramos, 3000, CEP 69077-000, Manaus, AM, Brazil
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade e Biotecnologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Av. Gen. Rodrigo Octávio Jordão Ramos, 3000, CEP 69077-000, Manaus, AM, Brazil
Departamento de Biologia, ICB, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Av. Gen. Rodrigo Octávio Jordão Ramos, 3000, CEP 69077-000, Manaus, AM, Brazil
Universidade Regional do Cariri, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Campus do Pimenta, Rua Cel. Antônio Luiz, 1161, Bairro do Pimenta, CEP 63105-100, Crato, CE, Brazil
Laboratório de Evolucão e Genética Animal, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Av. Gen. Rodrigo Octávio Jordão Ramos, 3000, CEP 69077-000, Manaus, AM, Brazil
Laboratório de Evolucão e Genética Animal, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Av. Gen. Rodrigo Octávio Jordão Ramos, 3000, CEP 69077-000, Manaus, AM, Brazil
Amphibian Anura Bufonidae Amazophrynella Brazil

Abstract

Amazophrynella is a genus of the family Bufonidae, currently represented by three species. The type species of the genus, Amazophrynella minuta, however, is a complex of species occurring throughout the Amazonian biome. This group remains problematic taxonomically; the difficulty lays principally in the lack of diagnostic characters in the original description of A. minuta, the lack of molecular data and refined taxonomic comparison of individuals through its wide distribution. We describe a new species of the genus Amazophrynella, distributed in the southwestern part of the Guiana Shield of Brazil based on a series of morphological and molecular characters. The new species differs from others of the genus by presenting a slightly truncated triangular snout, ventral texture covered by many fine granules, white belly covered with black spots and by fifteen molecular autapomorphies in the 16S rDNA fragment. Uncorrected p-distances of a fragment of the 16S mitochondrial rDNA gene revealed high divergence among other Amazophrynella species (9%–14%). Additionally we provide a new diagnosis of topotypic material of Amazophrynella minuta including molecular data. Our results show the existence of a subestimated diversity in the genus Amazophrynella.