Phylogeographic analyses strongly suggest cryptic speciation in the giant spiny frog (Dicroglossidae: Paa spinosa) and interspecies hybridization in Paa.

ABSTRACT: Species identification is one of the most basic yet crucial issues in biology with potentially far-reaching implications for fields such as conservation, population ecology, and epidemiology. The widely distributed but threatened frog Paa spinosa has been speculated to represent a complex of multiple species. In this study, 254 individuals representing species of the genus Paa were investigated along the entire range of P. spinosa: 196 specimens of P. spinosa, 8 specimens of P. jiulongensis, 5 specimens of P. boulengeri, 20 specimens of P. exilispinosa, and 25 specimens of P. shini. Approximately 1333 bp of mtDNA sequence data (genes 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA) were used. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. BEAST was used to e

SUBMITTER: Ye S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3729840 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature