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A spectacular new species of Hyloscirtus (Anura: Hylidae) from the Cordillera de Los Llanganates in the eastern Andes of Ecuador Project ID: 000458202 Public
6 Media · 6 Specimens · Managed by: Claudia Koch

We have discovered a spectacular new species of frog in the genus Hyloscirtus, belonging to the H. larinopygion species group. The adult female is characterized by a mostly black body with large bright red spots on the dorsal and ventral surface, extremities, and toe pads. The adult male is unknown. Small juveniles are characterized by a yellow body with variable black markings on the flanks; while one larger juvenile displayed irregular orange or yellow marks on a black background color, with light orange or yellow toe pads. Additional distinctive external morphological features such as cloacal ornamentation are described, and some osteological details are imaged and analyzed. The performed phylogeny places the new species as the sister to a clade consisting of ten taxa, all of which are part of the H. larinopygion group. We use genetic distances to fit the new species into a published time-calibrated phylogeny of this group; our analysis based on the published chronology suggests that the divergence of the new species from its known congeners pre-dates the Quaternary period. The new species is currently only known only from Cerro Mayordomo, in Fundación EcoMinga´s Machay Reserve, at 2900m in the eastern Andes of Tungurahua province, Ecuador, near the southern edge of Los Llanganates National Park, but its real distribution may be larger.

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  ID Part Object Taxonomy Type Date Added Publication Status  
000458297 skull dhmecn:herp:9686 Hyloscirtus tapichalaca Volumetric Image Series 2022-08-30 Open Download  
000458289 skull dhmecn:herp:12483 Hyloscirtus lindae Volumetric Image Series 2022-08-30 Open Download  
000458273 skull dhmecn:herp:6493 Hyloscirtus psarolaimus Volumetric Image Series 2022-08-30 Open Download  
000458264 skull dhmecn:herp:12111 Hyloscirtus pacha Volumetric Image Series 2022-08-30 Open Download  
000458252 skull dhmecn:herp:3799 Hyloscirtus larinopygion Volumetric Image Series 2022-08-30 Open Download  
000458232 skull dhmecn:herp:14416 Hyloscirtus sp. Volumetric Image Series 2022-08-30 Open Download  
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