Biodiversity and Systematics of the Rhacophorid Anuran Radiation in Sri Lanka

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

PUBLIC ABSTRACT DEB 0345885 Schneider Sri Lanka is a small island nation off the southern tip of India. Together with the Western Ghats region of southwestern India, Sri Lanka is recognized as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots - an area with enormous species diversity and endemism, but also a high degree of threat to natural habitats. Sri Lanka, like much of the developing world, has experienced significant loss of it's once extensive rainforests. In fact, only about 5% of the islands rainforest remains, typically in small isolated fragments. Thus it was surprising that the remaining rainforest of Sri Lanka is home to a large number of previously unknown frog species. Surveys by the Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka over the past ten years revealed that there likely are over one hundred species of small terrestrial frogs endemic to the island. These frogs do not require free standing water in which to rear tadpoles - instead, they have no tadpoles and the embryos develop completely within eggs laid on land and from which fully formed froglets emerge. This mode of reproduction is known as direct-development and has evolved only about eight times in frogs making the Sri Lankan species even more unique. The purpose of this project is to fully document the frog species diversity in Sri Lanka as a first step in developing conservation measures to ensure that this unique radiation of frogs is not lost to future generations. We are using a variety of methods to identify and describe the new species and to determine their evolutionary relationships, including: DNA sequences, call recordings, and analyses of morphology and ecology. With funding from NSF we are now able to carry out a comprehensive survey of the island's frog fauna and analyze and describe in detail the many species that make up the remarkable radiation of direct-developing frogs in Sri Lanka. In close collaboration with the Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka, we are working to train a new cadre of Sri Lankan experts who will form the core of the nation's initiative to catalog and preserve its natural heritage. This study not only contributes to basic understanding of amphibian diversity in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, but also helps to build the infrastructure to ensure its preservation.