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How little is known about "the little brown frogs": description of three new species of the genus Leptobrachella (Anura: Megophryidae) from Yunnan Province, China.

Jin-Min Chen | Kai Xu | Nikolay A Poyarkov | Kai Wang | Zhi-Yong Yuan | Mian Hou | Chatmongkon Suwannapoom | Jian Wang | Jing Che
Zoological research | 2020

Asian leaf-litter toads of the genus Leptobrachella represent a great anuran diversification in Asia. Previous studies have suggested that the diversity of this genus is still underestimated. During herpetological surveys from 2013 to 2018, a series of Leptobrachella specimens were collected from the international border areas in the southern and western parts of Yunnan Province, China. Subsequent analyses based on morphological and molecular data revealed three distinct and previously unknown lineages, which we formally describe as three new species herein. Among them, we describe a new species that occurs at the highest known elevation for Leptobrachella in China. Four species of Leptobrachella, including two new species, are found in the same reserve. Furthermore, our results suggest that the population from Longchuan County, Yunnan, may represent an additional new species of Leptobrachella, although we tentatively assigned it to Leptobrachella cf. yingjiangensis due to the small sample size examined. Lastly, we provide the first description of females of L. yingjiangensis. Our results further highlight that both micro-endemism and sympatric distributions of species are common patterns in Leptobrachella, that contribute to taxonomic and conservation challenges in these frogs. We provide an identification key for Leptobrachella known to occur in Yunnan. Given the lack of knowledge on species diversity of Leptobrachella along international border areas, we recommend that future studies include trans-boundary collaborative surveys.

Pubmed ID: 32323508

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GenBank (tool)

RRID:SCR_002760

NIH genetic sequence database that provides annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences for almost 280 000 formally described species (Jan 2014) .These sequences are obtained primarily through submissions from individual laboratories and batch submissions from large-scale sequencing projects, including whole-genome shotgun (WGS) and environmental sampling projects. Most submissions are made using web-based BankIt or standalone Sequin programs, and GenBank staff assigns accession numbers upon data receipt. It is part of International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration and daily data exchange with European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) ensures worldwide coverage. GenBank is accessible through NCBI Entrez retrieval system, which integrates data from major DNA and protein sequence databases along with taxonomy, genome, mapping, protein structure and domain information, and biomedical journal literature via PubMed. BLAST provides sequence similarity searches of GenBank and other sequence databases. Complete bimonthly releases and daily updates of GenBank database are available by FTP.

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MUSCLE (tool)

RRID:SCR_011812

Multiple sequence alignment method with reduced time and space complexity.Multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput. Data analysis service for multiple sequence comparison by log- expectation.

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jModelTest (tool)

RRID:SCR_015244

Software tool used to carry out statistical selection of best-fit models of nucleotide substitution without the aid of PAUP*. It implements five different model selection strategies: hierarchical and dynamical likelihood ratio tests, Akaike and Bayesian information criteria, and a decision theory method. It also provides estimates of model selection uncertainty, parameter importances, and model-averaged parameter estimates.

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