AmphibiaWeb
is an online system that provides access to information on amphibian
declines, conservation, natural history, and taxonomy. See the new family-level revision: AmphibiaWeb Taxonomy 2.0
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Species of the Week:
Ceratophrys cornuta
Amphibian News
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Salerno et al. (2012) found that the ancient tepui summits in South America harbor young, rather than old, lineages of frogs. The tepuis (flat-top mountains) of South America, known as “sky islands”, were the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel “The Lost World”. These are ancient remnants of the Precambrian Guiana Shield plateau and were formed 70-90 mya. Because of their age, it was thought that the fauna of the tepuis may also be very old, and the tepuis may have served as a refuge for these species. But Salerno et al. found that treefrogs of the genus Tepuihyla climbed up the 1000-meter tepuis from the lowlands within the last 2-5 mya. Currently there is no empirical evidence for the “Lost World” hypothesis.
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