Phylogeography of three species of Phyllomedusa (Anura, Hylidae) within different morphoclimatic areas

Abstract

Three species of Phyllomedusa, currently named P. azurea, P. hypochondrialis e P. nordestina, were for long time assigned to P. hypochondrialis. These three closely related species are interesting models to be investigated through phylogeography approach, especially because they are widely distributed in three different morphoclimatic domains and shows allopatric occurrence. Difficulties in taxonomic delimitation and the occurrence of morphological and chromosomal variations associated with genetic divergence among populations, already reported by other authors, lead to the necessity of a wide sampling of this populations to get a complete panoramic of the history diversification of these taxa. Increasingly, refined phylogeography methods are important alternative to better understanding of micro and macroevolutionary process in these species. The focus of the project is provide more information about geographic distribution of the genetic variation in populations of the P. azurea, P. hypochondrialis and P. nordestina, aiming better taxonomic delimitation and to infer the history diversification of these taxa. (AU)