Análise morfométrica de osteocephalus taurinus (anura: hylidae)

Abstract

The Amazon is home to a high species richness, however, neotropical forests as a whole are poorly studied and possibly under-sampled. Studies with various taxonomic groups, including amphibians, have shown that the diversity may be even greater than imagined, revealing high rates of cryptodiversity. To explain the high biodiversity of the Amazon, there are theories that mainly consider 1) changes in the landscape, 2) historical climatic variations and to a lesser extent, 3) ecological factors. Anurans of the genus Osteocephalus are widely distributed, occupying tropical forests in the Amazon Basin and Guiana Region. It constitutes a group rich in cryptic species, being recognized for not reaching taxonomic stability, where studies of synonymy and species resuscitation are frequent. In this context, we evaluated whether the morphometry in O. taurinus varies in populations from different localities. Sixteen morphometric parameters were measured for 175 specimens of O. taurinus deposited in the herpetological collection of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA). We used a Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) to test significant differences in the morphometry of the evaluated individuals. Our results showed a poor accuracy in the discrimination of populations when analyzed by geographic location (44% accuracy). When analyzing the groups according to the relief, in a plain vs shield comparison, the groups had greater accuracy (79%). Keywords: Geographic variation, Species delimitation, Cryptic species.