Abstract
Using the data provided in Ruiz-Carranza et al. (1996) the distributions of the 540 species of frogs and toads are partitioned among ten ecogeographic units of Colombia defined on the basis of precipitation and elevation. Sorne lowlands areas (Pacific lowlands, Amazonia) exhibit high diversity (85-94 species) but lowlands areas in general are impoverished (30-52 species), especially when contrasted with upland areas. The three Andean cordilleras harbor between 87 and 121 species of frogs and toads, demonstrating that the biodiversity of Colombia resides primarily in its montane components, not in its lowland rainforests. When biological endemicity is separated from political endemicity, five areas of high endemicity remain (the three Andean cordilleras, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and the Pacific lowlands). We endeavor to explain this description by recourse to cladistic analyses of several groups of leptodactylid frogs where we find that the general pattem of diversification is by meaos of horizontal diversification (allopatric speciation) with a minor contribution from vertical diversification.
Keywords
References
Cochran, D. M. & C. J. Goin. 1970. Frogs of Colombia. U. S. Natl. Mus. Bull. (288):1-655.
Duellman, W. E. (ed.) 1979. The South American Herpetofauna: Its Origin, Evolution, and Dispersal. U. Kans. Mus. Nat. Hist., Monogr. 7:1-485.
Funk, V. A. 1982. Systematics of Montanoa (Asteraceae: Heliantheae). Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 36:1-135.
Lynch, J. D. 1980. New species of Eleutherodactylus of Colombia (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae). I: five new species from the paramos of the Cordillera Central. Caldasia 13(61):165-188.
Lynch, J. D. 1981. Leptodactylid frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus in the Andes of northern Ecuador and adjacent Colombia. Misc. Publ. Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. (72):1-46.
Lynch, J. D. 1989a. A review of the leptodactylid frogs of the genus Pseudopaludicola in northern South America. Copeia 1989:577-588.
Lynch, J. D. 1989b. Intrageneric relationships of mainland Eleutherodactylus (Leptodactylidae). I. A review of the frogs assigned to the Eleutherodactylus discoidalis species group. Contrib. Biol. Geol. Milwaukee Pub. Mus. (79):1-25.
Lynch, J. D. 1992. Two new species of Eleutherodactylus from southwestern Colombia and the proposal of a new species group (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae). J. Herpetol. 26:53-59.
Lynch, J. D. 1995. Three new species of Eleutherodactylus (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae) from paramos of the Cordillera Occidental of Colombia. J. Herpetol. 29:513-521.
Lynch, J. D. Intrageneric relationships of mainland Eleutherodactylus (Leptodactylidae). II. A review of the Eleutherodactylus sulcatus group. Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Ex. Fis. Nat. 21(80):in press.
Lynch, J. D., E. Duellman. 1997. Frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus in western Ecuador/ Systematics, ecology, and biogeography. Univ. Kansas, Nat. Hist. Mus., Spec. Publ. (23): iv + 236 pp.
Lynch, J. D. & J. V. Rueda-Almonacid. 1997. Three new species of frogs (Eleutherodactylus: Leptodactylidae) from cloud forests in eastern Departamento Caldas, Colombia. Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Ex. Fis. Nat. 21(79):131-142.
Lynch, J. D. & P. M. Ruiz-C. 1996. A remarkable new centrolenid frog from Colombia with areview of nuptial excrescenses in the family. Herpetologica 52:525-535.
Lynch, J. D & P. M. Ruiz-Carranza, & M. C. Ardila-Robayo. 1996. Three new species of Eleutherodactylus (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae) from high elevations of the Cordillera Central of Colombia. Caldasia 18:329-342.
Mayr. E. 1997. This Is Biology/ The Science of the Living World. Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Xv + 327 p.
Ruiz-Carranza, P. M., M. C. Ardila-Robayo, & J. D. Lynch. 1996. Lista actualizada de la fauna de Amphibia de Colombia. Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Ex. Fis. Nat. 20(77):365-415.
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2024 Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales