The aim of this study was to analyze the richness, abundance and composition of the terrestrial amphibian assemblage in a flooded riparian forest fragment in a Neotropical region in the south of Brazil over a year (2002-2003). A total of 1,265 terrestrial amphibians were captured, representing 12 species and six families. Leiuperidae represented 41.7 and 56.3% of the total number of species and...

Worldwide amphibian population declines have been ascribed to global warming, increasing pollution levels, and other factors directly related to human activities. These factors may additionally be favoring the emergence of novel pathogens. In this report, we have determined the complete genome sequence of the emerging common midwife toad ranavirus (CMTV), which has caused fatal disease in sever...

There has been a great deal of recent attention on the suspected increase in amphibian deformities. However, most reports of amphibian deformities have been anecdotal, and no experiments in the field under natural conditions have been performed to investigate this phenomenon. Under laboratory conditions, a variety of agents can induce deformities in amphibians. We investigated one of these agen...

This article presents data derived from a 36 year-long uninterrupted observational study of amphibian populations living in the city and vicinity of Yekaterinburg, Russia. This area is inhabited by six amphibian species. Based on a degree of anthropogenic transformation, the urban territory is divided into five highly mosaic zones characterized by vegetation, temperature, and a distinctive wate...

Amphibian and bird karyotypes typically have a complex organization, which makes them difficult for standard cytogenetic analysis. That is, amphibian chromosomes are generally large, enriched with repetitive elements, and characterized by the absence of informative banding patterns. The majority of avian karyotypes comprise a small number of relatively large macrochromosomes and numerous tiny m...

The Chinese giant salamander belongs to an old lineage of salamanders and endangered species. Many studies of breeding and disease regarding this amphibian had been implemented. However, the studies on the ultrastructure of this amphibian are rare. In this work, we provide a histological and ultrastructural investigation on posterior esophagus of Chinese giant salamander. The sections of amphib...

Despite the influence that amphibians have on the flow of energy and nutrients in ecological systems, the role that amphibians play in transporting contaminants through food webs has received very little attention. This study was undertaken to investigate bioaccumulation of trace elements in amphibians relative to other small aquatic organisms in a contaminated wetland. We collected bullfrog la...

A mechanism in the lungs of tree frogs helps filter incoming noise and other amphibian sounds from calls their own species.

Although dramatic amphibian declines have been documented worldwide, only few of such events have been quantitatively documented for the tropical forests of South America. This is due partly to the fact that tropical amphibians are patchily distributed and difficult to detect. We tested three methods often used to monitor population trends in amphibian species in a remote lowland tropical fores...

Anthropogenic disturbance of landscapes surrounding wetlands is considered a factor in local and global amphibian declines. Few data exist on the effects of agricultural cultivation of wetland watersheds on amphibians, and results from previous studies are contradictory. Our objective was to test the effects of general anthropogenic land use (cultivation vs. grassland) on the demographics of se...