INVESTIGADORES
FABREZI Marissa
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
What?s so Special About the Chaco? (and Why are their Tadpoles so Exceptional?)
Autor/es:
FABREZI, MARISSA; QUINZIO, SILVIA INÉS; GOLDBERG, JAVIER; CRUZ, JULIO CÉSAR; CHULIVER PEREYRA, MARIANA; WASSERSUG, RICHARD
Lugar:
Dunedin
Reunión:
Congreso; 9° World Congress of Herpetology; 2020
Institución organizadora:
Comite Mundial de Herpetología
Resumen:
What?s so Special About the Chaco? (and Why are Chaco Tadpoles so Exceptional?)The Chaco is a lowland region in central South America immediately east of the Andes. The Chaco is characterized by distinct wet and dry seasons, and soil rich in impermeable clay. This results in some enormous, yet temporary, ponds during the rainy season. Some Chaco ponds may last up to 11 months, yet the intense dry season assures that they are still temporary ponds and not permanent lakes.Chaco ponds provide home for aquatic residents, such as anuran larvae, that can metamorphose and leave when the ponds dry up. The ponds? temporary nature limits the type of fish that can live there. Some anuran taxa, most notably in the genera Lepidobatrachus and Ceratophrys (Ceratophryidae), have evolved to fill niches in the Chaco occupied elsewhere by predacious fish. Many adult features of ceratophryids are associated with fossorial habits and resistance to desiccation during the dry season. This allows them to survive underground when the ponds dry up.Lepidobatrachus and Ceratophrys have evolved two very different sets of morphological novelties that make them as both larvae and adults capable of feeding on exceptionally large prey (i.e., megalophagy). Both larval and adult Lepidobatrachus can capture large prey underwater. Given their similar feeding ecology, the larvae and adults have as well many morphological similarities. Some unique features of the tadpoles become disproportionately exaggerated in the adult Lepidobatrachus in a manner unseen in other anurans. Lepidobatrachus is unusual in having less morphological differences between its larvae and adults than virtually all other anuran.