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"Ronald Altig"
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The Reproductive Biology and Larvae of the First Tadpole-Bearing Frog, Limnonectes larvaepartus
Most of the reproductive modes of frogs include an exotrophic tadpole, but a number of taxa have some form of endotrophic development that lacks a feeding tadpole stage. The dicroglossid frog genus Limnonectes ranges from China south into Indonesia. The breeding biologies of the approximately 60 described species display an unusual diversity that range from exotrophic tadpoles to endotrophic development in terrestrial nests. There have been mentions of oviductal production of typical, exotrophic tadpoles in an undescribed species of Limnonectes from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Here we examine newly collected specimens of this species, now described as L. larvaepartus and present the first substantial report on this unique breeding mode. Typical exotrophic tadpoles that are retained to an advanced developmental stage in the oviducts of a female frog are birthed into slow-flowing streams or small, non-flowing pools adjacent to the streams.
Journal Article
Fifty-Three Years a Tadpole
The first section of this perspective explains how my early years shaped my thought processes, how I was shoved into academia, and how I stumbled onto a track to employment, tenure, and retirement at a single university. I always sought a broad education to support studies of mostly descriptive biology that were driven by my curiosity and the diversity of the amphibian life cycle. In that regard, I experienced the benefits of being gainfully employed without just having a job. The second section highlights my graduate students, collaborations, and research focus on larval amphibians at Mississippi State University. I felt it was my responsibility to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for their choices of life's pursuits. At the end, I try to think about the future study of larval amphibians, and based on technological advances and the sporadic insights of a few lucky persons, I am optimistic about what will happen.
Journal Article
Handbook of larval amphibians of the United States and Canada
Generously illustrated, this essential handbook for herpetologists, ecologists, and naturalists features comprehensive keys to eggs, embryos, salamander larvae, and tadpoles; species accounts; a glossary of terms; and an extensive bibliography. The taxonomic accounts include a summarization of the morphology and basic natural history, as well as an introduction to published information for each species. Tadpole mouthparts exhibit major characteristics used in identifications, and the book includes illustrations for a number of species. Color photographs of larvae of many species are also presented.
Handbook of Larval Amphibians of the United States and Canada, written by the foremost experts on larval amphibians, is the first guide of its kind and will transform the fieldwork of scientists and fish and wildlife professionals.
eBook
Spiders as frog-eaters: a global perspective
In this paper, 374 incidents of frog predation by spiders are reported based on a comprehensive global literature and social media survey. Frog-catching spiders have been documented from all continents except for Antarctica (>80% of the incidents occurring in the warmer areas between latitude 30° N and 30° S). Frog predation by spiders has been most frequently documented in the Neotropics, with particular concentration in the Central American and Amazon rain forests and the Brazilian Atlantic forest. The captured frogs are predominantly small-sized with an average body length of 2.76 ± 0.13 cm (usually ≈0.2–3.8 g body mass). All stages of the frogs' life cycle (eggs/embryos, hatchlings, tadpoles, emerging metamorphs, immature post-metamorphs, adults) are vulnerable to spider predation. The majority (85%) of the 374 reported incidents of frog predation were attributable to web-less hunting spiders (in particular from the superfamilies Ctenoidea and Lycosoidea) which kill frogs by injection of powerful neurotoxins. The frog-catching spiders are predominantly nocturnal with an average body length of 2.24 ± 0.12 cm (usually ≈0.1–2.7 g body mass). Altogether >200 frog species from 32 families (including several species of bitter tasting dart-poison frogs) have been documented to be hunted by >100 spider species from 22 families. Our finding that such a high diversity of spider taxa is utilizing such a high variety of frog taxa as prey is novel. The utilization of frogs as supplementary food increases the spiders' food supply (i.e., large diet breadth), and this is presumed to enhance their chance of survival. Studies from Australia and South America indicate that frogs might be a substantial component in the diet of some mygalomorph spiders (i.e., families Atracidae, Idiopidae, and Theraphosidae). Many more quantitative investigations on the natural diets of tropical spiders are needed before reliable conclusions on the importance of frogs as spider food can be drawn.
Journal Article
FLYING SOUTHWARD THIRTY-THREE DEGREES TO CATCH MORE FROGS
In 1975, as my seventh year at Mississippi State University approached, I planned a sabbatical in the Amazonian jungle near the equator at Santa Cecilia, Ecuador. Marty Crump gave me a brief introduction to this new world, and a couple of nights after she left I noticed the absolute brilliance of the stars reflected in a puddle of water on the dirt runway. When I lay down for a longer view, I saw a shiny satellite zipping across the backdrop of stars, and when my focusing knob got twisted just right, the Southern Cross snapped into view about halfway to
Book Chapter
Handbook of Larval Amphibians
Generously illustrated, this essential handbook for herpetologists, ecologists, and naturalists features comprehensive keys to eggs, embryos, salamander larvae, and tadpoles; species accounts; a glossary of terms; and an extensive bibliography. The taxonomic accounts include a summarization of the morphology and basic natural history, as well as an introduction to published information for each species. Tadpole mouthparts exhibit major characteristics used in identifications, and the book includes illustrations for a number of species. Color photographs of larvae of many species are also presented.
Handbook of Larval Amphibians of the United States and Canada , written by the foremost experts on larval amphibians, is the first guide of its kind and will transform the fieldwork of scientists and fish and wildlife professionals.
eBook
Lost Frogs and Hot Snakes
Lost Frogs and Hot Snakes reveals the thrills and travails that herpetologists experience when working with amphibians and reptiles in the wild. With essays from fifty field biologists, this volume, edited by Martha L. Crump, presents a multifaceted yet intimate look at life in pursuit of knowledge about the natural world.
From the beaches of Peru to the mountains of China, the stories in this collection place readers in the boots of field biologists as they watch, count, experiment, and survey. Some recall mishaps and misadventures—contending with leeches, dangling off a precipice while in a truck. Others tell of once-in-a-lifetime encounters—discovering a new frog species, spotting a rare snake. Together, these stories offer an understanding of what field biology is, what field biologists do, and how they go about doing it.
Written with candor, warmth, and a dash of humor, the stories in Lost Frogs and Hot Snakes will encourage readers to appreciate the value of engaging with nature and of the amphibians and reptiles so critical to the vitality of our planet.
eBook
Cranial anatomy of the amazing bromeliad tadpoles of Phyllodytes gyrinaethes (Hylidae: Lophyohylini), with comments about other gastromyzophorous larvae
The ecomorphological guild “gastromyzophorous” joins tadpoles that inhabit flowing water and have an abdominal sucker which is employed to adhere to substrates. Historically, gastromyzophorous larvae were known in the Bufonidae and Ranidae, but a new sucker-bearing hylid tadpole was recently described from phytotelmons in Brazilian forests. We describe the larval internal anatomy of
Phyllodytes gyrinaethes
and ask whether its exceptional external morphology is accompanied by derived anatomical internal features that can be related to the special habitat. We also compare it to the anatomy of sucker-bearing tadpoles from other families with a focus on characters exclusive of each lineage and the shared, convergent features. The skeleton of
P. gyrinaethes
is highly modified relative to that of pond-type hylines and shows a profound restructuring of the oral region, palatoquadrates, and the branchial baskets. Among the muscles, besides the overall reduction in the branchial musculature, the most unusual feature in this species are the enormous, anteriorly oriented mm. levatores mandibulae externus profundus that likely produce the abduction of the two halves of the snout. The presence of the abdominal sucker is coupled with changes in some muscle trajectories and hypertrophy of the subhyoid ligaments, and the sucker connectivity differs in some aspects compared with those of bufonids and ranids (e.g., the presence of massive mm. diaphragmatopraecordialis parallel to the sucker plane).
P. gyrinaethes
tadpoles, with their combination of both rare and unique morphological features plus their confined microhabitat with exceptional functional and ecological requirements, represent an extreme morphotype within Hylidae and anuran tadpoles in general.
Journal Article
MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION OF EGG AND CLUTCH STRUCTURE IN AMPHIBIANS
The first part of this synthesis summarizes the morphology of the jelly layers surrounding an amphibian ovum. We propose a standard terminology and discuss the evolution of jelly layers. The second part reviews the morphological diversity and arrangement of deposited eggs—the ovipositional mode; we recognize 5 morphological classes including 14 modes. We discuss some of the oviductal, ovipositional, and postovipositional events that contribute to these morphologies. We have incorporated data from taxa from throughout the world but recognize that other types will be discovered that may modify understanding of these modes. Finally, we discuss the evolutionary context of the diversity of clutch structure and present a first estimate of its evolution.
Journal Article