Mitogenomics of historical type specimens clarifies the taxonomy of Ethiopian Ptychadena Boulenger, 1917 (Anura, Ptychadenidae).

ABSTRACT: The taxonomy of the Ptychadenaneumanni species complex, a radiation of grass frogs inhabiting the Ethiopian highlands, has puzzled scientists for decades because of the morphological resemblance among its members. Whilst molecular phylogenetic methods allowed the discovery of several species in recent years, assigning pre-existing and new names to clades was challenged by the unavailability of molecular data for century-old type specimens. We used Illumina short reads to sequence the mitochondrial DNA of type specimens in this group, as well as ddRAD-seq analyses to resolve taxonomic uncertainties surrounding the P.neumanni species complex. The phylogenetic reconstruction revealed recurrent confusion between Ptychadenaerlangeri (Ahl, 1924) and P.neumanni (Ahl, 1

SUBMITTER: Reyes-Velasco J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8604866 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature