Phylogenetics and Taxonomy of Neotropical Anurans

The Neotropics harbour the greatest amphibian diversity on Earth, with anurans exhibiting remarkable evolutionary radiations across Central and South America. Phylogenetic reconstructions increasingly draw on multilocus datasets—combining mitochondrial and nuclear sequences, ultraconserved elements and karyotypic characters—to resolve both ancient divergences and recent speciation events within major families such as Dendrobatidae, Hylidae and Leptodactylidae. Integrative taxonomy, uniting molecular, morphological and bioacoustic evidence, has revealed extensive cryptic diversity and parallel instances of convergent traits, including warning colouration and morphological adaptations to distinct microhabitats. Biogeographic analyses link lineage diversification to Andean uplift, Amazonian river dynamics and Pleistocene climatic oscillations, elucidating dispersal corridors and vicariant barriers. Enhanced taxonomic resolution informs conservation priorities by identifying previously unrecognised endemics and refining species boundaries in the face of habitat loss and emerging diseases. This synthesis underscores the power of comprehensive genomic and cytogenetic frameworks to reconstruct complex evolutionary histories and deliver robust classifications that support both fundamental evolutionary research and practical biodiversity management.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent work on a South American leptodactylid complex has integrated mitochondrial markers, reduced‐representation genomic data and karyotype analyses to examine contact zones between lineages. This approach revealed admixture and heteromorphic sex chromosomes in one lineage, demonstrating that hybridisation has driven cytogenetic divergence and contributed to species boundaries. Such findings emphasise the importance of chromosomal evolution in amphibian speciation and refine taxonomic hypotheses within rapidly diversifying Neotropical groups.

Phylogenetics and Taxonomy of Neotropical Anurans publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in phylogenetics and taxonomy of neotropical anurans across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Phylogenetics: the study of evolutionary relationships among organisms using genetic or morphological data to infer branching patterns of descent.

Taxonomy: the science of naming, describing and classifying species and higher taxa based on shared characteristics and evolutionary history.

Ultraconserved elements: regions of the genome that are highly identical across diverse taxa, used as markers for deep phylogenetic inference.

Karyotypic divergence: variation in chromosome number and structure among populations or species, often reflecting evolutionary processes.

Admixture: the interbreeding of distinct genetic lineages, resulting in mixed ancestry within individuals or populations.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA): the maternally inherited genome found in mitochondria, widely used for reconstructing recent evolutionary events.

Species delimitation: the process of defining the boundaries between species, often integrating genetic, morphological and ecological data.

Convergent evolution: the independent acquisition of similar traits in unrelated lineages due to analogous selective pressures.

References

1. Multiple Routes to Color Convergence in a Radiation of Neotropical Poison Frogs. Systematic Biology (2023).
2. Multiple contact zones and karyotypic evolution in a neotropical frog species complex. Scientific Reports (2024).
3. Underestimation of Species Richness in Neotropical Frogs Revealed by mtDNA Analyses. PLOS ONE (2007).
4. Amazonian Amphibian Diversity Is Primarily Derived from Late Miocene Andean Lineages. PLOS Biology (2009).
5. High Levels of Diversity Uncovered in a Widespread Nominal Taxon: Continental Phylogeography of the Neotropical Tree Frog Dendropsophus minutus. PLOS ONE (2014).