Morphological differentiation of endemic water frogs (Pelophylax, Ranidae) from the southwestern Balkans

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61988987%3A17310%2F21%3AA2302HQA" target="_blank" >RIV/61988987:17310/21:A2302HQA - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/61988987:17310/21:A2402HQI

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.salamandra-journal.com/index.php/home/contents/2021-vol-57/2015-papezik-p-m-kubala-d-jablonski-m-dolezalkova-kastankova-l-choleva-m-benovics-p-mikulicek/file" target="_blank" >https://www.salamandra-journal.com/index.php/home/contents/2021-vol-57/2015-papezik-p-m-kubala-d-jablonski-m-dolezalkova-kastankova-l-choleva-m-benovics-p-mikulicek/file</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Morphological differentiation of endemic water frogs (Pelophylax, Ranidae) from the southwestern Balkans

Original language description

The southwestern Balkans is inhabited by three endemic water frog species, Pelophylax shqipericus, P. epeiroticus and P. kurtmuelleri. Although these species are genetically and bioacoustically distinct from each other, their morphological differentiation is less pronounced as is generally observed in the genus Pelophylax. In this study, we analyzed morphological data of 215 individuals of these Balkan endemics in order to evaluate their morphological variability and facilitate their identification in the field. Moreover, since P. kurtmuelleri is a disputable taxon, we compared it with closely related P. ridibundus from Central Europe. The most pronounced morphological differences expressed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the discriminant analysis of the principal components (DAPC) were found between P. kurtmuelleri and the two other Balkan species. Pelophylax kurtmuelleri and P. ridibundus, as well as P. shqipericus and P. epeiroticus were only slightly differentiated by morphology, which demonstrates that the morphological characters measured do not reflect the genetic divergence of the species and are weak indicators of their taxonomic status. Morphological characters suitable for species identification include a combination of indices L/CINT, T/CINT, L/T, and DP/CINT (L - snout-vent length, CINT - length of the metatarsal tubercle, T - length of the tibia, DP - length of the first toe), and qualitative traits like the pattern and shape of the lateral spots, presence/absence of yellow pigment in the flanks and thighs, foot webbing colouration, size and shape of the metatarsal tubercle, and colouration of the male vocal sacs.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10613 - Zoology

Project

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Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Salamandra

ISSN

0036-3375

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

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Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

19

Pages from-to

105-123

UT code for WoS article

000619821500010

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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