007 Fossorial Frogs

Herpetological Highlights

This week is a fully frog podcast, dedicated to those frogs who dig. We touch on how the climate can induce fossorial adaptations and limit frog’s activity periods. Along with how some frogs manage to sustain populations despite their sedentary and subterranean lives. And look at perhaps the most bizarre looking frog ever to have graced the earth. To round off we have a newly described burrow-utilising frog for our Species of the Bi-week. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com

Main Paper References:

Andreone, Franco, Paolo Eusebio Bergò, Vincenzo Mercurio, and Gonçalo M. Rosa. 2013. “Spatial Ecology of Scaphiophryne Gottlebei in the Canyons of the Isalo Massif, Madagascar.” Herpetologica 69 (1): 11–21.

Encarnación-Luévano, Alondra, Octavio R. Rojas-Soto, and J. Jesús Sigala-Rodríguez. 2013. “Activity Response to Climate Seasonality in Species with Fossorial Habits: A Niche Modeling Approach Using the Lowland Burrowing Treefrog (Smilisca Fodiens).” PLoS ONE 8 (11): 1–7. OPEN ACCESS

Thomas, Ashish, Robin Suyesh, S. D. Biju, and Mark A. Bee. 2014. “Vocal Behavior of the Elusive Purple Frog of India (Nasikabatrachus Sahyadrensis), a Fossorial Species Endemic to the Western Ghats.” PLoS ONE 9 (2). OPEN ACCESS

Species of the Bi-Week:

Matsui, Masafumi, Kanto Nishikawa, and Koshiro Eto. 2014. “A New Burrow-Utilising Fanged Frog from Sarawak, East Malaysia (Anura: Dicroglossidae).” Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 62: 679–87. OPEN ACCESS

Other Mentioned Papers/Studies:

Andreone, Franco, Fabio Mattioli, and Vincenzo Mercurio. 2005a. “The Call of Scaphiophryne Gottlebei, a Microhylid Frog from the Isalo Massif, Southcentral Madagascar.” Current Herpetology 24 (1): 33–35.

Andreone, Franco, V. Mercurio, F. Mattioli, and T. J. Razafindrabe. 2005b. “Good News for Three Critically Endangered and Traded Frogs from Madagascar.” FrogLog 72: 2–3.

Biju, S. D., and Franky Bossuyt. 2003. "New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles." Nature 425 (6959): 711-714.

Boistel, Renaud, Thierry Aubin, Peter Cloetens, Françoise Peyrin, Thierry Scotti, Philippe Herzog, Justin Gerlach, Nicolas Pollet, and Jean-François Aubry. 2013. “How Minute Sooglossid Frogs Hear without a Middle Ear.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 (38): 15360–64. OPEN ACCESS

Crottini, Angelica, Ylenia Chiari, Vincenzo Mercurio, Axel Meyer, Miguel Vences, and Franco Andreone. 2008. “Into the Canyons: The Phylogeography of the Malagasy Frogs Mantella Expectata and Scaphiophryne Gottlebei in the Arid Isalo Massif, and Its Significance for Conservation (Amphibia: Mantellidae and Microhylidae).” Organisms Diversity and Evolution 8 (5): 368–77. OPEN ACCESS

Filippi, Piera, Jenna V. Congdon, John Hoang, Daniel L. Bowling, Stephan A. Reber, Andrius Pašukonis, Marisa Hoeschele et al. 2017. "Humans recognize emotional arousal in vocalizations across all classes of terrestrial vertebrates: evidence for acoustic universals." Proceeding of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 284 (1859): 20170990

Iskandar, Djoko T., Ben J. Evans, and Jimmy A. McGuire. 2014. "A novel reproductive mode in frogs: a new species of fanged frog with internal fertilization and birth of tadpoles." PLoS One 9 (12): e115884. OPEN ACCESS

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. 2016. “Scaphiophryne Gottlebei, Malagasy Rainbow Frog.” The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T57998A84182454. OPEN ACCESS

Nomura, Fausto, Denise C. Rossa-Feres, and Francisco Langeani. 2009. “Burrowing Behavior of Dermatonotus Muelleri (Anura, Microhylidae) with Reference to the Origin of the Burrowing Behavior of Anura.” Journal of Ethology 27 (1): 195–201.

Rosa, Gonçalo M., Vincenzo Mercurio, Angelica Crottini, and Franco Andreone. 2010. “Predation of the Snake Leioheterodon Modestus (Günther, 1863) upon the Rainbow Frog Scaphiophryne Gottlebei Busse & Böhme, 1992 at Isalo, Southern Madagascar.” Herpetology Notes 3 (1): 259–61.

Wake, Marvalee H. 1978. "The reproductive biology of Eleutherodactylus jasperi (Amphibia, Anura, Leptodactylidae), with comments on the evolution of live-bearing systems." Journal of Herpetology: 121-133.

Zachariah, Anil, Robin Kurian Abraham, Sandeep Das, K. C. Jayan, and Ronald Altig. 2012. "A detailed account of the reproductive strategy and developmental stages of Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis (Anura: Nasikabatrachidae), the only extant member of an archaic frog lineage." Zootaxa 3510 (1): 53-64.

Other Links/Mentions:

Audio S1 from Thomas et al. 2014 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084809.s001

Audio S2 from Thomas et al. 2014 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084809.s002

Audio S3 from Thomas et al. 2014 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084809.s003

Video S1 from Thomas et al. 2014 - http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0084809.s005&type=supplementary

Audio S1 from Boistel et al. 2013 - http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2013/08/28/1302218110.DCSupplemental/ad01.wav

Audio of Scaphiophryne gottlebei from The calls of the frogs of Madagascar by Miguel Vences, Frank Glaw and Rafael Márquez, recorded by Franco Andreone - http://www.fonozoo.com/fnz_detalles_registro_amphibia.php?id=93943&tipo_registro=1

BBC’s Life in Cold Blood, Amazing Rain Frogs - https://youtu.be/mISMwN-0ggE

Music – http://www.purple-planet.com