Evolutionary and natural history of the turtle frog, Myobatrachus gouldii, a bizarre myobatrachid frog in the southwestern Australian biodiversity hotspot.

ABSTRACT: Southwest Australia (SWA) is a global biodiversity hotspot and a centre of diversity and endemism for the Australo-Papuan myobatrachid frogs. Myobatrachus gouldii (the turtle frog) has a highly derived morphology associated with its forward burrowing behaviour, largely subterranean habit, and unusual mode of reproduction. Its sister genera Metacrinia and Arenophryne have restricted distributions in Western Australia with significant phylogeographic structure, leading to the recent description of a new species in the latter. In contrast, Myobatrachus is distributed widely throughout SWA over multiple climatic zones, but little is known of its population structure, geographic variation in morphology, or reproduction. We generated molecular and morphological data to test for genetic and morph

SUBMITTER: Vertucci S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5351994 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature