Color is Not Everything: Improving the Geographic Coverage and the Species Delimitation in the Andean Poison Frogs of the Andinobates Bombetes Group (Anura: Dendrobatidae)

The topographic and climatic complexity of the northern Andes plays a well-established role in driving speciation. This environmental heterogeneity has fostered taxonomic diversification in various anuran groups, where species delimitation often relies on genetic distances, allopatry, and geographic barriers. In this study, we adopt an alternative approach to delineate species boundaries within the Andean poison frogs of the Andinobates bombetes group. Previous species descriptions have been limited by sparse genetic and geographic sampling, often emphasizing coloration and distribution, which may reflect interpopulation variation or population structure rather than true speciation. We applied both genetic threshold criteria and explicit delimitation methods using mtDNA, expanding geographic coverage, particularly for widespread species. Our results reveal novel phylogeographic patterns and varying degrees of genetic structure in broadly distributed species. Notably, we found unexpected mismatches among coloration, genetic structure, and geography within genetically similar clades. These findings suggest new evolutionary relationships among populations and indicate that some currently recognized species may represent a single evolutionary unit.

• Autores: Ortegón Tolosa, Yeison Leonardo
• Fecha de publicación: 2025
• Institución: Universidad de Antioquia
• Repositorio: Repositorio UdeA
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:bibliotecadigital.udea.edu.co:10495/47537
• Acceso en línea: https://hdl.handle.net/10495/47537
• Palabra clave: Clasificación; Classification; Taxonomía; taxonomy; Delimitación de especies; species delimitation; Colombia; Systematics; Multispecies Coalescent; Sistematica; Coalescente multiespecie; Coloración; http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7631; http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_b71dfb10; http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_1767; https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D002965; ODS 15: Vida de ecosistemas terrestres. Proteger, restablecer y promover el uso sostenible de los ecosistemas terrestres, gestionar sosteniblemente los bosques, luchar contra la desertificación, detener e invertir la degradación de las tierras y detener la pérdida de biodiversidad
• Rights: openAccess
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/