Morphological patterns in Dendropsophus minutus (Peters, 1872) collected in urban environments over a temporal scale

• Grant number: 24/23421-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Morphology of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Tiana Kohlsdorf
• Grantee: Ana Sophia Reami Dallanese
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/14780-1 - Evo-Devo in dynamic environments: implications of climatic changes in the biodiversity, AP.TEM

Abstract

Urban environments represent environmental extremes in terms of changes in temperature, precipitation, and resource availability. Identifying phenotypic patterns in species tolerant to urbanization, associated with the process of anthropogenic environmental modification, contributes to a better understanding of adaptive processes and to the development of management plans for the conservation of species sensitive to environmental disturbances, such as anurans. Even in different parts of the world, cities are very similar to each other and may represent selective pressures that result in convergent evolutionary patterns. This Scientific Initiation project aims to evaluate morphological variables in a native anuran species that is tolerant to urbanization, Dendropsophus minutus, testing the hypothesis that certain phenotypic traits may rapidly change during the occupation of urban environments and result in morphological patterns common to individuals inhabiting anthropogenically modified areas, specifically.