Of Frogs and Men

David Blackburn — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:56:34 +0000

In a new paper in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Hadfield and Nakagawa recast recent work using phylogenetic comparative methods in a new light by using mixed models and pulling from quantitative genetic methods. It will be interesting to see the effect of this paper on comparative methods papers in the near future.

Earliest neobatrachian frog

David Blackburn — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:34:51 +0000

Neobatrchian’s comprise more than 95% of all living frogs (and thus the bulk of living amphibians). Until recently, the earliest fossil record of this diverse group was based on a few records from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian). In a recent paper in Cretaceous Research, Ana Báez and colleagues describe several new frog taxa from the upper portion of the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian). Via a cladisitic analysis, the authors nicely demonstrate that at least two of these new taxa are nested well within Neobatrchia, thus demonstrating that these are the earliest representatives of this diverse clade.

Frog uses indirect-recognition to find offspring

David Blackburn — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:25:30 +0000

A recent paper in the journal Animal Behavior finds that females of the Strawberry Poison-frog, Oophaga pumilio, uses physical location rather than offspring identity to locate tadpoles in bromeliads. Females of this species tend to offspring that have been deposited in bromeliads by occasionally visiting these little tanks of water to provide unfertilized eggs to the tadpoles.

New progress on the natural history of chytrid fungi

David Blackburn — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:11:46 +0000

A new study out in PNAS finds that chytrid fungi dominate the fungal cummunities at high elevations in places as distant as the Himalayas and the Rocky Mountains in the U.S.

There’s also a short piece on this in the Scientist.

Make your own zebra

David Blackburn — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:02:28 +0000

In an era when the general public is often concerned about genetic engineering, a zoo in Gaza has developed its own low-tech approach (donkey + tape + hair dye) to create zebras. The best part? You can ride these zebras!

Origin of viviparity in iguanian lizards predates recent glaciation

David Blackburn — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:11:38 +0000

A recent paper by Jim Schulte and Moreno-Roark in FirstCite in Biology Letters reveals that the transition from oviparity to viviparity preceded recent glaciation events, contrary to some previous hypotheses regarding the driving factors behind the origin of viviparity. This work nicely demonstrates how phylogenetic analysis and divergence date estimation can be combined to ask basic questions about the evolution of life history traits.

Bad news for Kenyan forests

David Blackburn — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:45:34 +0000

The BBC carried an interesting story highlighting conflicting interests of groups using different parts of watersheds. This certainly does not bode well for the many species occurring in these highland forest habitats, about which we still know too little. For the story, go here.

Lower Pleistocene hominins involved in more than just passive scavenging

David Blackburn — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:05:23 +0000

New paper out in Journal of Human Evolution provides potential evidence from a Lower Pleistocene Olduvai Gorge site that hominins were engaged in more than just passive scavenging of small to medium-size mammal carcasses. Combined with information for early usage of fire by hominins in the Lower Pleistocene, there seems to be a gradually building case that hominins have been active modifiers of the African landscape for a very long time.

The aborigine colonization of the Canary Islands

David Blackburn — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:54:53 +0000

For those interested in the biogeography of our own species, especially in relation to Africa, there’s an interesting new paper out in the European Journal of Human Genetics that deals with the geographic origin of the aboriginal populations of the Canary Islands. Unsurprisingly, many of the haplotypes are similar to those from populations in Northern Africa. However, they do posit a model of frequent migration between islands which goes somewhat against previous notions of colonization via “sequential island-hopping.”

Validation of taxonomy of old museum specimens using molecular data

David Blackburn — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:49:54 +0000

Nice new paper in Biology Letters about using molecular data to validate the species-level taxonomy of a hummingbird species known from a 100-year old specimen. For more click here.

While not quite the same, there has been an interesting flourishing of descriptions of new species of frogs that appear to have gone extinct many years ago. For a recent example, see here for a paper on Sri Lankan shrub frogs by Madhava Meegaskumbura. Similar papers will also soon be coming out for other genera of frogs. It’s a true shame that we are now describing species that have recently gone extinct because of habitat destruction or the spread of infectious diseases.