Analysis of internal morphology of the species of the genus Fritziana Mello-Leitão, 1937 (Anura; Hemiphractidae) based micro computed tomography

• Grant number: 12/02818-8
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal researcher: Célio Fernando Baptista Haddad
• Grantee: Marina Walker Ferreira de Faria
• Supervisor abroad: Kelly R. Zamudio
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Cornell University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/04933-6 - Taxonomic review of the genus Flectonotus Miranda-Ribeiro, 1926 (Anura; Hemiphractidae), BP.MS

Abstract

The genus of tree frogs Fritziana (family Hemiphractidade) has been subject of several papers dealing with their taxonomy, and there is great difficulty in defining its known three species just with external morphology. Our molecular data showed that the genus is divided into more than three clades, and can be split into more species. Published works dealing with internal morphology of the genus are scarce and refer only about the skull anatomy, which characterizes a poor use of morphological characters to elucidate the evolutionary history of the group. Analyses with these purpose are laborious and damage the specimen to future analyses less invasive. This is a serious problem in the case of Fritziana species, in which there are limited availability of material in taxonomic collections. One of the current non-invasive alternative to these works is the micro computed tomography (Micro CT), a technique that can be applied to intact specimens, generating images in two and three dimensions of the internal topology and microarchitecture of the individuals, with high contrast and excellent cost-benefit. The technique allows to find characters normally not used in taxonomy, allowing a better delimitation of species and an evolutionary study based on morphological characters. This work pretend to analyze with Micro CT all clades obtained with molecular and external morphology data in the principal project (FAPESP process nº 2011/04933-6), in order to: describe the internal anatomy and the variation existing in each of the clades found (including candidate new species) defining them also morphologically; understand the anatomy and morphology of the dorsal pouch of female with eggs; and get more data to do a integrative taxonomy work for this genus, allowing a more complete phylogenetic study. (AU)