Diego A. Ortiz

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Researcher at Galapagos Science Center

Aspects related to the natural history and behaviour of the Pacific horned frog Ceratophrys stolzmanni were investigated, mostly by observations under laboratory conditions. Ceratophrys stolzmanni is a poorly known species of horned frog (Ceratophryinae) that inhabits the xeric environments of Pacific coast in Ecuador and Peru. The species has been...

Diversification processes acting across geographically continuous populations have been rarely documented in Amazonia, because of the lack of fine-scale sampling over extensive areas. We aimed to determine the geographic effects of an environmental transition zone and large rivers on the intraspecific population structure of the Manaus slender-legg...

Abstract.- Knowledge on long-term population trends in crocodilians is essential to assess the effectiveness of conservation areas and to guide sustainable management practices. We studied changes in population size of spectacled (Caiman crocodilus) and black caimans (Melanosuchus niger) over a period of 17 yr at Mateococha, a black-water lake loca...

Dryaderces inframaculata Boulenger, 1882, is a rare species known only from a few specimens and localities in the southeastern Amazonia rainforest. It was originally described in the genus Hyla, after ~ 130 years transferred to Osteocephalus, and more recently to Dryaderces. These taxonomic changes were based solely on the similarity of morphologic...

The diversification processes underlying why Amazonia hosts the most species-rich vertebrate fauna on earth remain poorly understood. We studied the spatio-temporal diversification of a tree frog clade distributed throughout Amazonia (Anura: Hylidae: Osteocephalus , Tepuihyla , and Dryaderces ) and tested the hypothesis that Miocene mega wetlands l...

Nearly 200 years ago, the unique biota of Galapagos inspired amongst the greatest scientific revolutions in history – Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Today, this Natural World Heritage site (est. 1976) and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (est. 1984) also inspires pioneering models of sustainability, conservation and eco-tourism....

We present a new phylogeny, based on DNA sequences of mitochondrial and nuclear genes, for frogs of the genus Osteocephalus with emphasis in the Osteocephalus buckleyi species complex. Genetic, morphologic, and advertisement call data are combined to define species boundaries and describe new species. The phylogeny shows strong support for: (1) a b...

We provided the first confirmed report of Osteocephalus cabrerai (Cochran and Goin 1970) from Amazonian Ecuador. Two previous reports actually correspond to O. buckleyi.