Publications by authors named "Rafael fElix De magalhAes"

Background: The delimitation of cryptic species is a challenge for biodiversity conservation. Anurans show high cryptic diversity levels, and molecular species delimitation methods could help identify putative new species. Additionally, species delimitation approaches can provide important results for cryptic species conservation, with integrative methods adding robustness to results.

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Nyctimantis galeata (Pombal, Menezes, Fontes, Nunes, Rocha Van Sluys) is a casque-headed frog member of the Lophyohylini tribe (Blotto et al. 2020), narrow-endemic to the municipality of Morro do Chapéu, Bahia state, Brazil (Pombal et al. 2012).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how Quaternary climatic changes affected the population history and distribution of two unique amphibian species, Bokermannohyla alvarengai and Bokermannohyla oxente, in the Neotropical 'campo rupestre' of Brazil.
  • By analyzing tissue samples and using advanced statistical methods, researchers found evidence of population expansions during glacial periods and contractions in warmer interglacial periods, indicating a significant impact of climate on these species' ranges.
  • The findings highlight distinct periods of diversification for each species, suggesting that preservation of their unique lineages, especially an older lineage in a remote geological area, is crucial for conservation efforts.
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Bokermannohyla (tribe Cophomantini) is an endemic genus of Brazilian treefrogs containing 32 species arranged into four phenetic groups. The B. pseudopseudis group includes nine species, which are typically found in rupestrian ecosystems of disjunct Brazilian mountain ranges.

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Even though Brazil is the world leader in amphibian diversity, a significant part of its richness remains unknown or hidden under cryptic taxa. Here, we used model-based species delimitation in an integrative taxonomic approach, by gathering molecular and morphometric data to assess cryptic taxa within the monkey frogs Pithecopus rohdei, from the Atlantic Forest, and P. megacephalus, from campos rupestres ecosystem.

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The evolutionary processes underlying the high diversity and endemism in the Cerrado, the most extensive Neotropical savanna, remain unclear, including the factors promoting the presence and evolution of savanna enclaves in the Amazon forest. In this study, we investigated the effects of past climate changes on genetic diversity, dynamics of species range and the historical connections between the savanna enclaves and Cerrado core for , a tree species widely distributed in the biome. Totally, 40 populations distributed in the Cerrado core and Amazon savannas were analyzed using chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences.

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Protected areas (PAs) are essential for biodiversity conservation, but their coverage is considered inefficient for the preservation of all species. Many species are subdivided into evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) and the effectiveness of PAs in protecting them needs to be investigated. We evaluated the usefulness of the Brazilian PAs network in protecting ESUs of the critically endangered through ongoing climate change.

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