Christine Strussmann | Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT) (original) (raw)

Papers by Christine Strussmann

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 2021

The Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio) is an innovative program designed to integrate all ... more The Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio) is an innovative program designed to integrate all biodiversity research stakeholders. Operating since 2004, it has installed long-term ecological research sites throughout Brazil and its logic has been applied in some other southern-hemisphere countries. The program supports all aspects of research necessary to understand biodiversity and the processes that affect it. There are presently 161 sampling sites (see some of them at Supplementary Appendix), most of which use a standardized methodology that allows comparisons across biomes and through time. To date, there are about 1200 publications associated with PPBio that cover topics ranging from natural history to genetics and species distributions. Most of the field data and metadata are available through PPBio web sites or DataONE. Metadata is available for researchers that intend to explore the different faces of Brazilian biodiversity spatio-temporal variation, as well as for managers intending to improve conservation strategies. The Program also fostered, directly and indirectly, local technical capacity building, and supported the training of hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students. The main challenge is maintaining the long-term funding necessary to understand biodiversity patterns and processes under pressure from global environmental changes.

Tropical Conservation Science

Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the... more Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the increasing human pressure on natural environments, including wetlands. Wetlands provide critical ecosystem services for humanity and can generate a considerable direct or indirect income to the local communities. To meet many of the sustainable development goals, we need to move our trajectory from the current environmental destructive development to a wiser wetland use. The current article contain a proposed agenda for the Pantanal aiming the improvement of public policy for conservation in the Pantanal, one of the largest, most diverse, and continuous inland wetland in the world. We suggest and discuss a list of 11 essential interfaces between science, policy, and development in region linked to the proposed agenda. We believe that a functional science network can booster the collaborative capability to generate creative ideas and solutions to address the big challenges faced by the P...

Acta Oecologica

Seasonal flood pulses drive important seasonal ecosystem changes, trigger ecological processes th... more Seasonal flood pulses drive important seasonal ecosystem changes, trigger ecological processes that control spatial and temporal distribution of organisms and their life-history strategies, and are considered a key ecological process shaping diversity in floodplains. We used generalized dissimilarity modelling (GDM) to analyse the relative importance of flooding as a driver of snake community composition in the Paraguay River Basin (PRB), which encompasses discontinuous seasonal flooded areas, including the Pantanal floodplain, one of the largest Neotropical wetland systems. We modelled the beta diversity of pairs of PRB snake communities (based on species occurrence and phylogenetic relationships) as a function of biogeographical and environmental dissimilarities between areas, considering predictors that represent distinct limitations of species' ability to use an area. Annual flooding directly drives snake diversity, mainly when ancient evolutionary relationships between species were considered to calculate the phylogenetic diversity of the communities. Floods recurrently produce major changes in the environment and probably limit the persistency of species extremely specialized in habitat use. Despite the confirmation of the effect of flooding, the most important predictor of beta diversity between snake communities in the PRB was forest cover where communities were placed. Forest cover seems to constrain the occurrence of some species in both gradient extremities through the absence of suitable conditions for either specialized habitat use or thermoregulatory behaviours. Geographical distance was also an important predictor of beta diversity, highlighting the importance of neutral process in the assembly of local communities in systems such as seasonally flooded areas, where annual disturbances of varying intensities continually disassemble and reassemble biological communities. For the first time, we quantified the relative importance of flooding affecting patterns of biological communities in the Pantanal floodplain, compared to multiple factors also acting on species turnover in the area.

Wilderness & Environmental Medicine

A 47-y-old man was bitten by a reduviid bug from the Zelus Fabricius, 1803 genus, which was hidde... more A 47-y-old man was bitten by a reduviid bug from the Zelus Fabricius, 1803 genus, which was hidden inside a rubber-coated boot. The bite caused immediate and sharp pain, followed by local edema and constant pruritus for 15 d. Pain and fever within the first 24 h were managed with analgesics as needed, and resolution was complete and without sequelae after 21 d.

Genetics and molecular biology, 2016

Scinax (Anura: Hylidae) is a species-rich genus of amphibians (113 spp.), divided into five speci... more Scinax (Anura: Hylidae) is a species-rich genus of amphibians (113 spp.), divided into five species groups by morphological features. Cladistic analyses however revealed only two monophyletic clades in these groups: Scinax catharinae and Scinax ruber. Most species from the S. catharinae clade are found in Atlantic rainforest, except for Scinax canastrensis,S. centralis, S. luizotavioi, S. machadoi,S. pombali and S. skaios. In the present work, specimens of Scinax collected in Chapada dos Guimarães, central Brazil, were morphologically compatible with species from theS. catharinae group. On the other hand, genetic analysis based on mitochondrial (16S and 12S) and nuclear (rhodopsin) sequences revealed a nucleotide divergence of 6 to 20% between Scinax sp. and other congeners from the Brazilian savannah (Cerrado). Accordingly, Bayesian inference placed Scinax sp. in the S. catharinae clade with high support values. Hence, these findings strongly indicate the presence of a new species ...

In the last decades, fi eld inventories and ecological studies on amphibians and reptiles were in... more In the last decades, fi eld inventories and ecological studies on amphibians and reptiles were intensifi ed in the Upper Paraguay River Basin. Although a complete updated species list has not been published yet, these studies, together with the increment and organization of regional zoo-logical collections, allow a general evaluation of the taxonomic composition and ecological traits of the local herpetofauna. Both for amphibians and reptiles, areas in the fl oodplain present lower richness and higher abundances when compared to localities in the surrounding highlands. Ter-restrial species predominate in spite of the wide extension of aquatic habitats. New taxonomic records are expected due to the ongoing colonization process from neighboring ecosystems, climatic and hydrological changes, and ongoing research in distinct parts of the Pantanal. None of the species occurring in the whole basin is included in offi cial lists of endangered species. There are quite good ecological and/or...

Resumo.-Exúvias de serpente como material habitual de nidificação do japacanim (Donacobius atrica... more Resumo.-Exúvias de serpente como material habitual de nidificação do japacanim (Donacobius atricapilla) (Passeriformes: Donacobiidae) no Pantanal.-Exúvias de serpentes são ocasionalmente reportadas como material utilizado na composição de ninhos de Passeriformes, tanto em habitats temperados como tropicais. Entre outras explicações, tais artefatos podem funcionar como sinais de alerta e podem dissuadir alguns potenciais predadores de ninhos. Aqui registramos a presença de exúvias da jararacuçu-do-brejo (Hydrodynastes gigas) em nove ninhos do japacanim (Donacobius atricapilla) encontrados numa região do Pantanal brasileiro, onde ambas as espécies são abundantes. Os ninhos, em forma de cesto alto, foram construídos em hábitats sazonalmente alagáveis e apoiados em forquilhas de arbustos a uma altura média de 0,66 ± 0,24 m acima do nível da água. O artigo chama atenção para as possíveis circunstâncias que envolvem a obtenção de exúvias de serpente por indiví-duos de D. atricapilla durante a construção do ninho, e também para a potencial eficiência desse tipo de artefato para intimidar o predador.

Anthropogenic factors have significantly influenced the frequency, duration, and intensity of met... more Anthropogenic factors have significantly influenced the frequency, duration, and intensity of meteorological drought in many regions of the globe, and the increased frequency of wildfires is among the most visible consequences of human-induced climate change. Despite its role in determining biodiversity outcomes in different ecosystems, wildfires can cause negative impacts on wildlife. We conducted ground surveys along line transects to estimate the first-order impact of the 2020 wildfires on vertebrates in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil. We adopted the distance sampling technique to estimate the densities and the number of dead vertebrates in the 39,030 square kilometers affected by fire. Our estimates indicate that at least 16.952 million vertebrates were killed immediately by the fires in the Pantanal, demonstrating the impact of such an event in wet savanna ecosystems. The Pantanal case also reminds us that the cumulative impact of widespread burning would be catastrophic, as fire...

... Christine Strüssmann1,2*, Vitor Azarias Campos2, Tainá Figueras Dorado Rodrigues2, Carlos Hen... more ... Christine Strüssmann1,2*, Vitor Azarias Campos2, Tainá Figueras Dorado Rodrigues2, Carlos Henrique LN Almeida3, Luís Felipe Toledo3, Marinus Steven Hoogmoed4 and Rafael Martins ... Marcos André de Carvalho kindly allowed the examination of material under his care. ...

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2015

Phylogenetic studies have uncovered biogeographic patterns and the associated diversification pro... more Phylogenetic studies have uncovered biogeographic patterns and the associated diversification processes of Neotropical wet forest taxa, yet the extensive open and drier biomes have received much less attention. In the Stenocercus lizard radiation, restricted sampling and phylogenetic information have limited inferences about the timing, spatial context, and environmental drivers of diversification in the open and dry lowland settings of eastern and southern South America. Based on new DNA sequence data of previously unsampled species, we provide an updated historical biogeographic hypothesis of Stenocercus. We infer phylogenetic relationships, estimate divergence times, and track ancestral distributions, asking whether cladogenetic events within the genus correlate to reported shifts in South American landscapes during the past 30millionyears, focusing in the open and drier areas. To examine correlations between genetic and ecological divergence, we extracted environmental data from occurrence records and estimated climatic envelopes occupied by lowland taxa. Our results suggest that Stenocercus began to diversify around the South American Midwest by the late Oligocene. We recovered two main lowland and two main Andean clades within the genus; within both Andean clades, most cladogenetic events date back to the Miocene, synchronously with the most intense phase of Andean uplift. In the western clade of lowland Stenocercus, species ranges and divergence times are consistent with major landscape shifts at the upper Guaporé and Paraguay River basins as a result of Andean orogeny, suggesting vicariant speciation. By contrast, in the 'horned' lowland clade, we find evidence that dispersal and ecological differentiation have shaped species divergences and current ranges in the Brazilian Cerrado, Caatinga, Pampas and Atlantic Forest, possibly under a vanishing refuge scenario. Lastly, our phylogenetic results indicate two divergent clades within the formerly recognized taxon S. sinesaccus, and further evaluation of morphological data corroborates the existence of a distinct, new species of Stenocercus, here described. The new taxon occurs in the Chapada dos Parecis massif in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Rondônia.

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2015

The Cerrado is a wide Neotropical savanna with tremendously high endemic diversity. Yet, it is no... more The Cerrado is a wide Neotropical savanna with tremendously high endemic diversity. Yet, it is not clear what the prevalent processes leading to such diversification are. We used the Cerrado-endemic lizard Norops meridionalis to investigate the main abiotic factors that promoted genetic divergence, the timings of these divergence events, and how these relate to cryptic diversity in the group. We sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear genes from 21 sites of N. meridionalis to generate species tree, divergence time estimations, and estimate species limits. We also performed population-level analysis and estimated distribution models to test the roles of niche conservatism and divergence in the group diversification. We found that N. meridionalis is composed by at least five cryptic species. Divergence time estimations suggest that the deepest branches split back into the early-mid Miocene, when most of the geophysical activity of the Cerrado took place. The deep divergences found in N. meridionalis suggest that beta anoles invaded South America much earlier than previously thought. Recent published evidence supports this view, indicating that the Panama gap closed as early as 15 mya, allowing for an early invasion of Norops into South America. The spatial pattern of diversification within N. meridionalis follows a northwest-southeast direction, which is consistent across several species of vertebrates endemic to the Cerrado. Also, we found evidence for non-stationary isolation by distance, which occurs when genetic differentiation depends on space. Our preliminary data in two out of five lineages suggest that niche conservatism is an important mechanism that promoted geographic fragmentation in the group.

Memórias do Instituto Butantan

Zootaxa

The karyotypes of four Brazilian "eleutherodactyline" samples were analyzed aiming to provide add... more The karyotypes of four Brazilian "eleutherodactyline" samples were analyzed aiming to provide additional cytogenetic data for future understanding of the evolutionary and systematic relationships of this large anuran group. The populations consisted of Pristimantis dundeei (Chapada dos Guimarães and Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso), Pristimantis aff. dundeei (Aripuanã, Mato Grosso) and Ischnocnema paulodutrai (Ilhéus, Bahia). The data revealed that P. dundeei and P. aff. dundeei have 2n=28 chromosomes, whereas I. paulodutrai has 2n=30. All pairs of chromosomes were telocentric, except for the subtelocentric pair 4 in I. paulodutrai. Differences in Ag-NOR pattern and interstitial heterochromatin positions clearly distinguished P. aff. dundeei from P. dundeei, and differentiated them from I. paulodutrai. The specimens of I. paulodutrai showed two distinct color patterns, but they did not differ in their cytogenetic characteristics. Karyotypes with 2n=28 and 2n=30 chromosomes have not been previously described for Brazilian "eleutherodactylines" which, to date, had been characterized as 2n=20, 2n=22 and 2n=34. The NOR position differences identified between P. dundeei and P. aff. dundeei, allied to their known distinct behavior and ecological data, suggested that the P. aff. dundeei from the Aripuanã sampling location is a new species. Similarities between I. paulodutrai and species currently assigned to Pristimantis are herein discussed on the basis of chromosome number and morphological characteristics.

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 2021

The Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio) is an innovative program designed to integrate all ... more The Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio) is an innovative program designed to integrate all biodiversity research stakeholders. Operating since 2004, it has installed long-term ecological research sites throughout Brazil and its logic has been applied in some other southern-hemisphere countries. The program supports all aspects of research necessary to understand biodiversity and the processes that affect it. There are presently 161 sampling sites (see some of them at Supplementary Appendix), most of which use a standardized methodology that allows comparisons across biomes and through time. To date, there are about 1200 publications associated with PPBio that cover topics ranging from natural history to genetics and species distributions. Most of the field data and metadata are available through PPBio web sites or DataONE. Metadata is available for researchers that intend to explore the different faces of Brazilian biodiversity spatio-temporal variation, as well as for managers intending to improve conservation strategies. The Program also fostered, directly and indirectly, local technical capacity building, and supported the training of hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students. The main challenge is maintaining the long-term funding necessary to understand biodiversity patterns and processes under pressure from global environmental changes.

Tropical Conservation Science

Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the... more Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the increasing human pressure on natural environments, including wetlands. Wetlands provide critical ecosystem services for humanity and can generate a considerable direct or indirect income to the local communities. To meet many of the sustainable development goals, we need to move our trajectory from the current environmental destructive development to a wiser wetland use. The current article contain a proposed agenda for the Pantanal aiming the improvement of public policy for conservation in the Pantanal, one of the largest, most diverse, and continuous inland wetland in the world. We suggest and discuss a list of 11 essential interfaces between science, policy, and development in region linked to the proposed agenda. We believe that a functional science network can booster the collaborative capability to generate creative ideas and solutions to address the big challenges faced by the P...

Acta Oecologica

Seasonal flood pulses drive important seasonal ecosystem changes, trigger ecological processes th... more Seasonal flood pulses drive important seasonal ecosystem changes, trigger ecological processes that control spatial and temporal distribution of organisms and their life-history strategies, and are considered a key ecological process shaping diversity in floodplains. We used generalized dissimilarity modelling (GDM) to analyse the relative importance of flooding as a driver of snake community composition in the Paraguay River Basin (PRB), which encompasses discontinuous seasonal flooded areas, including the Pantanal floodplain, one of the largest Neotropical wetland systems. We modelled the beta diversity of pairs of PRB snake communities (based on species occurrence and phylogenetic relationships) as a function of biogeographical and environmental dissimilarities between areas, considering predictors that represent distinct limitations of species' ability to use an area. Annual flooding directly drives snake diversity, mainly when ancient evolutionary relationships between species were considered to calculate the phylogenetic diversity of the communities. Floods recurrently produce major changes in the environment and probably limit the persistency of species extremely specialized in habitat use. Despite the confirmation of the effect of flooding, the most important predictor of beta diversity between snake communities in the PRB was forest cover where communities were placed. Forest cover seems to constrain the occurrence of some species in both gradient extremities through the absence of suitable conditions for either specialized habitat use or thermoregulatory behaviours. Geographical distance was also an important predictor of beta diversity, highlighting the importance of neutral process in the assembly of local communities in systems such as seasonally flooded areas, where annual disturbances of varying intensities continually disassemble and reassemble biological communities. For the first time, we quantified the relative importance of flooding affecting patterns of biological communities in the Pantanal floodplain, compared to multiple factors also acting on species turnover in the area.

Wilderness & Environmental Medicine

A 47-y-old man was bitten by a reduviid bug from the Zelus Fabricius, 1803 genus, which was hidde... more A 47-y-old man was bitten by a reduviid bug from the Zelus Fabricius, 1803 genus, which was hidden inside a rubber-coated boot. The bite caused immediate and sharp pain, followed by local edema and constant pruritus for 15 d. Pain and fever within the first 24 h were managed with analgesics as needed, and resolution was complete and without sequelae after 21 d.

Genetics and molecular biology, 2016

Scinax (Anura: Hylidae) is a species-rich genus of amphibians (113 spp.), divided into five speci... more Scinax (Anura: Hylidae) is a species-rich genus of amphibians (113 spp.), divided into five species groups by morphological features. Cladistic analyses however revealed only two monophyletic clades in these groups: Scinax catharinae and Scinax ruber. Most species from the S. catharinae clade are found in Atlantic rainforest, except for Scinax canastrensis,S. centralis, S. luizotavioi, S. machadoi,S. pombali and S. skaios. In the present work, specimens of Scinax collected in Chapada dos Guimarães, central Brazil, were morphologically compatible with species from theS. catharinae group. On the other hand, genetic analysis based on mitochondrial (16S and 12S) and nuclear (rhodopsin) sequences revealed a nucleotide divergence of 6 to 20% between Scinax sp. and other congeners from the Brazilian savannah (Cerrado). Accordingly, Bayesian inference placed Scinax sp. in the S. catharinae clade with high support values. Hence, these findings strongly indicate the presence of a new species ...

In the last decades, fi eld inventories and ecological studies on amphibians and reptiles were in... more In the last decades, fi eld inventories and ecological studies on amphibians and reptiles were intensifi ed in the Upper Paraguay River Basin. Although a complete updated species list has not been published yet, these studies, together with the increment and organization of regional zoo-logical collections, allow a general evaluation of the taxonomic composition and ecological traits of the local herpetofauna. Both for amphibians and reptiles, areas in the fl oodplain present lower richness and higher abundances when compared to localities in the surrounding highlands. Ter-restrial species predominate in spite of the wide extension of aquatic habitats. New taxonomic records are expected due to the ongoing colonization process from neighboring ecosystems, climatic and hydrological changes, and ongoing research in distinct parts of the Pantanal. None of the species occurring in the whole basin is included in offi cial lists of endangered species. There are quite good ecological and/or...

Resumo.-Exúvias de serpente como material habitual de nidificação do japacanim (Donacobius atrica... more Resumo.-Exúvias de serpente como material habitual de nidificação do japacanim (Donacobius atricapilla) (Passeriformes: Donacobiidae) no Pantanal.-Exúvias de serpentes são ocasionalmente reportadas como material utilizado na composição de ninhos de Passeriformes, tanto em habitats temperados como tropicais. Entre outras explicações, tais artefatos podem funcionar como sinais de alerta e podem dissuadir alguns potenciais predadores de ninhos. Aqui registramos a presença de exúvias da jararacuçu-do-brejo (Hydrodynastes gigas) em nove ninhos do japacanim (Donacobius atricapilla) encontrados numa região do Pantanal brasileiro, onde ambas as espécies são abundantes. Os ninhos, em forma de cesto alto, foram construídos em hábitats sazonalmente alagáveis e apoiados em forquilhas de arbustos a uma altura média de 0,66 ± 0,24 m acima do nível da água. O artigo chama atenção para as possíveis circunstâncias que envolvem a obtenção de exúvias de serpente por indiví-duos de D. atricapilla durante a construção do ninho, e também para a potencial eficiência desse tipo de artefato para intimidar o predador.

Anthropogenic factors have significantly influenced the frequency, duration, and intensity of met... more Anthropogenic factors have significantly influenced the frequency, duration, and intensity of meteorological drought in many regions of the globe, and the increased frequency of wildfires is among the most visible consequences of human-induced climate change. Despite its role in determining biodiversity outcomes in different ecosystems, wildfires can cause negative impacts on wildlife. We conducted ground surveys along line transects to estimate the first-order impact of the 2020 wildfires on vertebrates in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil. We adopted the distance sampling technique to estimate the densities and the number of dead vertebrates in the 39,030 square kilometers affected by fire. Our estimates indicate that at least 16.952 million vertebrates were killed immediately by the fires in the Pantanal, demonstrating the impact of such an event in wet savanna ecosystems. The Pantanal case also reminds us that the cumulative impact of widespread burning would be catastrophic, as fire...

... Christine Strüssmann1,2*, Vitor Azarias Campos2, Tainá Figueras Dorado Rodrigues2, Carlos Hen... more ... Christine Strüssmann1,2*, Vitor Azarias Campos2, Tainá Figueras Dorado Rodrigues2, Carlos Henrique LN Almeida3, Luís Felipe Toledo3, Marinus Steven Hoogmoed4 and Rafael Martins ... Marcos André de Carvalho kindly allowed the examination of material under his care. ...

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2015

Phylogenetic studies have uncovered biogeographic patterns and the associated diversification pro... more Phylogenetic studies have uncovered biogeographic patterns and the associated diversification processes of Neotropical wet forest taxa, yet the extensive open and drier biomes have received much less attention. In the Stenocercus lizard radiation, restricted sampling and phylogenetic information have limited inferences about the timing, spatial context, and environmental drivers of diversification in the open and dry lowland settings of eastern and southern South America. Based on new DNA sequence data of previously unsampled species, we provide an updated historical biogeographic hypothesis of Stenocercus. We infer phylogenetic relationships, estimate divergence times, and track ancestral distributions, asking whether cladogenetic events within the genus correlate to reported shifts in South American landscapes during the past 30millionyears, focusing in the open and drier areas. To examine correlations between genetic and ecological divergence, we extracted environmental data from occurrence records and estimated climatic envelopes occupied by lowland taxa. Our results suggest that Stenocercus began to diversify around the South American Midwest by the late Oligocene. We recovered two main lowland and two main Andean clades within the genus; within both Andean clades, most cladogenetic events date back to the Miocene, synchronously with the most intense phase of Andean uplift. In the western clade of lowland Stenocercus, species ranges and divergence times are consistent with major landscape shifts at the upper Guaporé and Paraguay River basins as a result of Andean orogeny, suggesting vicariant speciation. By contrast, in the 'horned' lowland clade, we find evidence that dispersal and ecological differentiation have shaped species divergences and current ranges in the Brazilian Cerrado, Caatinga, Pampas and Atlantic Forest, possibly under a vanishing refuge scenario. Lastly, our phylogenetic results indicate two divergent clades within the formerly recognized taxon S. sinesaccus, and further evaluation of morphological data corroborates the existence of a distinct, new species of Stenocercus, here described. The new taxon occurs in the Chapada dos Parecis massif in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Rondônia.

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2015

The Cerrado is a wide Neotropical savanna with tremendously high endemic diversity. Yet, it is no... more The Cerrado is a wide Neotropical savanna with tremendously high endemic diversity. Yet, it is not clear what the prevalent processes leading to such diversification are. We used the Cerrado-endemic lizard Norops meridionalis to investigate the main abiotic factors that promoted genetic divergence, the timings of these divergence events, and how these relate to cryptic diversity in the group. We sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear genes from 21 sites of N. meridionalis to generate species tree, divergence time estimations, and estimate species limits. We also performed population-level analysis and estimated distribution models to test the roles of niche conservatism and divergence in the group diversification. We found that N. meridionalis is composed by at least five cryptic species. Divergence time estimations suggest that the deepest branches split back into the early-mid Miocene, when most of the geophysical activity of the Cerrado took place. The deep divergences found in N. meridionalis suggest that beta anoles invaded South America much earlier than previously thought. Recent published evidence supports this view, indicating that the Panama gap closed as early as 15 mya, allowing for an early invasion of Norops into South America. The spatial pattern of diversification within N. meridionalis follows a northwest-southeast direction, which is consistent across several species of vertebrates endemic to the Cerrado. Also, we found evidence for non-stationary isolation by distance, which occurs when genetic differentiation depends on space. Our preliminary data in two out of five lineages suggest that niche conservatism is an important mechanism that promoted geographic fragmentation in the group.

Memórias do Instituto Butantan

Zootaxa

The karyotypes of four Brazilian "eleutherodactyline" samples were analyzed aiming to provide add... more The karyotypes of four Brazilian "eleutherodactyline" samples were analyzed aiming to provide additional cytogenetic data for future understanding of the evolutionary and systematic relationships of this large anuran group. The populations consisted of Pristimantis dundeei (Chapada dos Guimarães and Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso), Pristimantis aff. dundeei (Aripuanã, Mato Grosso) and Ischnocnema paulodutrai (Ilhéus, Bahia). The data revealed that P. dundeei and P. aff. dundeei have 2n=28 chromosomes, whereas I. paulodutrai has 2n=30. All pairs of chromosomes were telocentric, except for the subtelocentric pair 4 in I. paulodutrai. Differences in Ag-NOR pattern and interstitial heterochromatin positions clearly distinguished P. aff. dundeei from P. dundeei, and differentiated them from I. paulodutrai. The specimens of I. paulodutrai showed two distinct color patterns, but they did not differ in their cytogenetic characteristics. Karyotypes with 2n=28 and 2n=30 chromosomes have not been previously described for Brazilian "eleutherodactylines" which, to date, had been characterized as 2n=20, 2n=22 and 2n=34. The NOR position differences identified between P. dundeei and P. aff. dundeei, allied to their known distinct behavior and ecological data, suggested that the P. aff. dundeei from the Aripuanã sampling location is a new species. Similarities between I. paulodutrai and species currently assigned to Pristimantis are herein discussed on the basis of chromosome number and morphological characteristics.