Gastrotheca Fitzinger, 1843 tadpole morphology: Larval cranium description and its evolutionary implications (Amphibia: Anura: Hemiphractidae).

Hemiphractids have a singular mode of reproduction that involves maternal care. The Andean-endemic Gastrotheca marsupiata species group includes direct-developing and tadpole-bearing species, the latter trait being unique among Gastrotheca. Larval morphology has proven to be a valuable source of evidence to understand the taxonomy and evolution of frogs but remains understudied in Hemiphractids.

First description of the advertisement call of the rare treefrog Aplastodiscus flumineus (Cruz and Peixoto, 1985) (Anura: Hylidae: Cophomantinae).

N/A.

Rediscovery of the toadlet Brachycephalus bufonoides Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920 (Anura: Brachycephalidae) with osteological and acoustic descriptions.

Brachycephalus bufonoides was described as a "variety" of B. ephippium based on two specimens which 90 years later was considered full species. Besides its brief original description, nothing else is known for this species.

Calls of (Caramaschi & Cruz, 2004) (Amphibia, Anura, Hylidae), an endemic tree frog from the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Bioacoustical data are useful for studying amphibians, especially their conservation, taxonomy, and evolution, among others. Of the 12 species of the clade, only and have no published information about their advertisement calls. We recorded four males of in its type locality at Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, south-eastern Brazil.

Amphibian chytrid infection is influenced by rainfall seasonality and water availability.

Amphibians suffer from a number of factors that make them the most threatened group of vertebrates. One threat is the fungal disease chytridiomycosis caused by the emerging pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which has rapidly spread and caused the loss of massive amphibian biodiversity worldwide. Recently, Bd was associated with a few amphibian population declines and extinctions in some areas of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

A fifth species of the genus Euparkerella (Griffths, 1959), the advertisement calls of E. robusta Izecksohn, 1988 and E. tridactyla Izecksohn, 1988, and a key for the Euparkerella species (Anura: Brachycephaloidea: Craugastoridae).

A new species of the anuran genus Euparkerella is described from a rainforest area in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Morphologically, the species resembles E. brasiliensis and E.

Seasonal Variation in Population Abundance and Chytrid Infection in Stream-Dwelling Frogs of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Enigmatic amphibian declines were first reported in southern and southeastern Brazil in the late 1980s and included several species of stream-dwelling anurans (families Hylodidae and Cycloramphidae). At that time, we were unaware of the amphibian-killing fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd); therefore, pollution, habitat loss, fragmentation and unusual climatic events were hypothesized as primary causes of these declines. We now know that multiple lineages of Bd have infected amphibians of the Brazilian Atlantic forest for over a century, yet declines have not been associated specifically with Bd outbreaks.

Larval chondrocranium morphology of five species of Proceratophrys Miranda-Ribeiro (Amphibia; Anura; Odontophrynidae).

The chondrocranium and hyobranchial morphology are described for the tadpoles of five species of Proceratophrys Miranda-Ribeiro. The chondrocranium of P. appendiculata, P boiei, P laticeps and P.

Microscopical methods promote the understanding of the integument biology of Rhinella ornata.

In Rhinella ornata, the integument of different body regions was investigated using low-vacuum scanning electron and light microscopy through histochemical and immunohistochemical methods, and revealed the basic structure found in other anurans. Keratinocytes formed the keratinized squamous stratified epithelium, and flask cells occurred among the epidermal superficial layer. Just below the epidermis, the dermis was subdivided into a spongious dermis and a compact dermis.

Structural aspects of an unusual choroidal polarized hyaline cartilage in the eyeball of Bufo ictericus and Rana catesbeiana (Amphibia, Anura): morphological and physiological significance.

Amphibian eyes play an important role in vision and in several physiological processes, such as food capture and breathing. To maintain the integrity of the eyeball there is a unique cuplike hyaline cartilage as a supporting tissue. In Bufo ictericus and Rana catesbeiana the cartilage layer is located between the retina and the choroids, being designated as choroidal cartilage, important to visual performance.