Dissertation Research: The Phylogeny of Scinax (Anura: Hylidae): Molecules, Morphology, Biogeography, and the Evolution of a Diverse Treefrog Group

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Dr. Darrel Frost and Mr. Julian Faivovich of the American Museum of Natural History will study evolutionary relationships of treefrogs of the genus Scinax, which is distributed in tropical and subtropical regions from Mexico to Argentina. With approximately 85 species known and several dozen awaiting description, Scinax is the most diverse natural assemblage of Meso- and South American treefrogs of the family Hylidae. This diversity, coupled with the local abundance of many species, has led many researchers in behavioral ecology and physiology to use species of Scinax as models in studies of mate selection, vocalizations, reproductive behavior, and activity metabolism, among others. The present study will collect evidence from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences, morphology, vocalizations, reproductive biology, and behavior for approximately 73 species of Scinax and several related groups in order to test the monophyly of Scinax, improve understanding of the relationship between Scinax and other treefrogs, and resolve the relationships among the species of Scinax. The resulting phylogeny also will be used by the authors to test hypotheses about patterns and mechanisms of the evolution of vocalizations, morphological diversification, habitat selection, and biogeography of the Americas.This study will train a doctoral student. Results of this study will provide ecologists and physiologists a predictive historical framework for the interpretation of the growing mass of comparative studies of Scinax. More importantly, the results will be relevant to conservation studies. Nearly 50% of the known species of Scinax are endemic to the Atlantic forest of southeastern Brazil, a highly fragmented and critically endangered ecosystem. Knowledge of the historical diversification of these species, as well as the improved understanding of their basic biology that this study will engender, will provide crucial information to design cogent conservation strategies.