Conservation Genetics of Malagasy Amphibians

1 If one advances confidently in the directions of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours HD THOREAU 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to my advisor, Prof Axel Meyer for giving me the opportunity to work during my Ph.D. on a topic I love and I hope to continue to work on it in the future, conservation genetics of herpetofauna. I am also thankful to him for all the things I learned from him and for creating a challenging environment. I would like to thank all the members and friends of the Meyer lab with whom I shared the past years in Konstanz. Especially, also would like to thank Frauke Muenzel, because it was great fun to teach her in the lab and Elke Hespeler for being one of the best people to share a lab life with. I would like to thank all the people who collaborate with me during my Ph.D. me the opportunity to go to Madagascar to sample tortoises with him, which was an incredible experience. Lucca, the grant of the Wilhelm-Peters-Fonds (DGHT) for financial support like my salary and supporting my fieldwork. I am extremely thankful to friends and family for their support and understanding. It was a tough, challenging, stressful, exciting, incredible time here in Konstanz. A special thank goes to my mum and to Guglielmo for believing in me, supporting me and respecting my decisions, always. Arie van der Meijden is another person to whom I am incredibly thankful. I should have thanked him as a Meyer lab member and as a work collaborator. I have also to thank him for all the time he answered to my " I have a question " , for his English 3 corrections and for showing me how to catch frogs. I am also grateful to him for motivating me, for his support and for sharing with me ideas about work. To conclude, I still remember the first time I met Miguel Vences and David R. Vieites in Konstanz. That was one of my lucky days. I want to especially thank Miguel for including me in his research group (and this even if I was not born under the Taurus sign, as David told me once), for all the things I learned from him, for transmitting me his enthusiasm, for all …