Phylogeographic patterns of frogs from the Central Congolian Lowland Forests
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| Citation | |
| Description | While the amphibian fauna of West Africa and the Lower Guinean rainforests is comparatively well studied, the central Congo Basin and particularly the area south of the Congo River (Central Congolian Lowland Forests, CCLF) remains a “black box”. Its difficult accessibility and socio-political instability have, with a few exceptions, hampered fieldwork in recent years. As a result, the known biodiversity in this area is low, which is expectedly due to low sampling intensity rather than reflecting biological reality. We performed DNA barcoding (16S rRNA) of frogs from different ecological niches (terrestrial, semiaquatic, and scansorial) to investigate intraspecific diversity and phylogeographic patterns. Data were supplemented with sequences from GenBank. We introduce a selection of interesting focal taxa and present preliminary results showing partially idiosyncratic phylogeographic patterns and some endemic haplotype variants in the CCLF. We discuss the historical biogeography of Central Africa in general and the Congo River in particular, which could act as a potential biogeographic barrier for some species depending on their ecology. |
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