#NewSpecies - 9 new Limnonectes (Fanged Frog) from Sulawesi, Indonesia

A team led by Ben Evans at McMaster University reports on a remarkable adaptive diversification of frogs on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. By comparison to the Philippines, frog diversity on Sulawesi Island is low with the exception of one group—the fanged frogs of the genus Limnonectes. Evans and his team uncovered striking variation in frog body size that corresponds with different ecological niches on Sulawesi. Novel adaptations repeatedly arose in these frogs, such as internal fertilization and parental care, which facilitate exploitation of unoccupied ecological niches on Sulawesi. Evans and his colleagues propose that the origin of these innovations was driven by ecological opportunity presented by the absence on Sulawesi of competition from the frog genus Platymantis, a group that has high diversity in the Philippines and convergently evolved adaptations for terrestrial living. This discovery is a surprising example of how species may end up using similar tactics to survive and diversify if given the opportunity.

Adaptive Radiation and Ecological Opportunity in Sulawesi and Philippine Fanged Frog (Limnonectes) Communities:
Press release by The American Naturalist Journal: http://www.asnamnat.org/node/123


http://bio.mcmaster.ca/faculty/evans/web/EvansLab/Publications_files/setiadi.etal.2011.pdf