Hendrik Müller

Hendrik Müller
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg | MLU · Zentralmagazin Naturwissenschaftlicher Sammlungen - Natural Sciences Collections

PD Dr.

About

122
Publications
29,803
Reads
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1,426
Citations
Additional affiliations
May 2020 - present
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Position
  • Curator of Zoology
July 2016 - present
Natural History Museum, London
Position
  • Research Associate
November 2014 - October 2019
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Position
  • Professor (Assistant)
Education
May 2019 - May 2019
January 2003 - November 2007
Leiden University
Field of study
October 1995 - May 2002
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Field of study
  • Biology

Publications

Publications (122)
Article
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Many amphibian lineages show terrestrialization of their reproductive strategy and breeding is partially or completely independent of water. A number of causal factors have been proposed for the evolution of terrestrialized breeding. While predation has received repeated attention as a potential factor, the influence of other factors such as habita...
Article
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How evolutionary novelties evolve is a major question in evolutionary biology. It is widely accepted that changes in environmental conditions shift the position of selective optima, and advancements in phylogenetic comparative approaches allow the rigorous testing of such correlated transitions. A longstanding question in vertebrate biology has bee...
Article
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Direct development has evolved independently several times in anurans and direct-developing species are characterized by large-scale developmental repatterning and a complete, or near complete, absence of most tadpole specific structures. Earlier studies stressed the similarities among different direct-developing species, but more recent studies ha...
Article
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Background Cases of parallel evolution offer the possibility to identify adaptive traits and to uncover developmental constraints on the evolutionary trajectories of these traits. The independent evolution of direct development from the ancestral biphasic life history in frogs is such a case of parallel evolution. In frogs, aquatic larvae (tadpoles...
Article
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In the present study, we investigate the larval development and metamorphic changes of the skeleton of the small, West African pipid frog Pseudhymenochirus merlini Chabanaud, 1920 for the first time. Specimens were cleared and differentially stained for bone and cartilage and the presence or absence of individual bony elements was recorded. Pseudhy...
Article
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Amphibians represent a diverse group of tetrapods, marked by deep divergence times between their three systematic orders and families. Studying amphibian biology through the genomics lens increases our understanding of the features of this animal class and that of other terrestrial vertebrates. The need for amphibian genomic resources is more urgen...
Article
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Arthroleptidae are an ecologically diverse group of sub-Saharan frogs. Arthroleptid tadpoles predominately occur in slow flowing to torrent waters. Their musculoskeletal system and the relationship between tadpole morphology and lifestyle are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the cranial morphology of four arthroleptid tadpoles occurring in...
Article
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Background Salamanders are the only tetrapods that exhibit the ability to fully regenerate limbs. The axolotl, a neotenic salamander, has become the model organism for regeneration research. Great advances have been made providing a detailed understanding of the morphological and molecular processes involved in limb regeneration. However, it remain...
Preprint
Full-text available
Amphibians represent a diverse group of tetrapods, marked by deep divergence times between their three systematic orders and families. Studying amphibian biology through the genomics lens increases our understanding of the features of this animal class and that of other terrestrial vertebrates. The need for amphibian genomics resources is more urge...
Article
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Discoveries of new species can greatly impact our understanding of the biogeography of a region. For example, groups of amphibian lineages restricted to the Afrotemperate forests of Tanzania and Ethiopia are indicative of a shared biogeographical history of this highly discontinuous ecosystem. Curiously, many of these lineages are absent from the g...
Article
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Information on even the most basic biological aspects is often missing for many species and even higher taxa of caecilians. As in other amphibians, development is plesiomorphically biphasic and aquatic larvae are present in Rhinatrematidae, Ichthyophiidae, and some Indotyphlidae. However, only very little information on larval morphology and ecolog...
Article
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The tadpole of Altiphrynoides osgoodi is described on the basis of material collected in 1975 near Goba, Ethiopia. The tadpole resembles typical bufonid tadpoles in its general shape and size, but differs in several characters from other known African bufonid tadpoles. It is characterized by very large nostrils and an indistinct (in preservative),...
Article
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Since 1984 there have been no records of Rhaebo colomai (Hoogmoed, 1985) within the territory of Ecuador. This species was known from 2 localities in the province of Carchi, northwestern Ecuador, and the department of Nariño, southwestern Colombia, which were reported in 1979 and 2015, respectively. We report the recent sightings of R. colomai at 3...
Article
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Few detailed accounts of the developmental morphology of caecilian amphibians exist and recent studies have highlighted problems concerning the homology of some skull elements. We investigated the embryonic and post-hatching development of the skeleton and musculature of Idiocranium russeli, a possibly miniaturized caecilian endemic to Cameroon. Id...
Poster
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Secondarily biphasic Desmognathus species (D. ocoee and D. qua-dramaculatus) that "re-evolved" the larval state develop neuro-masts and lateral line ganglia like primarily biphasic salamanders. In the direct developing D. aeneus no neuromasts and lateral line ganglia are recognizable at the same developmental stage. (Figs. 2 and 3). We therefore su...
Article
Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scanning and three-dimensional reconstruction have revolutionized morphological studies. Whereas species descriptions and comparative studies formerly were based on external appearance and dissection, we now can visualize muscles, skeleton and viscera in intact animals. In most cases, visualization of internal s...
Article
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The tadpole of Leptopelis natalensis is described based on a series of 32 specimens from Entumeni Forest, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Previous descriptions are brief, lack morphometric data, or are based on specimens of imprecise origin. The tadpole resembles other Leptopelis tadpoles and is generally in agreement with existing accounts, although...
Article
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Amphibians, and anurans in particular, show the highest diversity of reproductive modes among tetrapods. Nevertheless, viviparity is scarce in anurans and its occurrence is even more often assumed rather than confirmed. Probably the best studied viviparous amphibian is the Nimba toad, Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis. During more than 40 years of resea...
Article
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Anaerobic digestion of water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes Mart.) from eutrophic water bodies could be a sustainable post weed management practice to generate bioenergy. Comparative analyses of the water quality, physicochemical characteristics, and biomethanation kinetics of water hyacinth from two sites with different water types (brackish versu...
Article
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The niche-filling process predicted by the 'ecological opportunity' (EO) model is an often-invoked mechanism for generating exceptional diversity in island colonizers. Whether the same process governs lineage accumulation and trait disparity during continental colonization events is less clear. Here we test this prediction by investigating the rate...
Article
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The tadpole of Leptopelis cf. grandiceps is described from the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania. The tadpole resembles other Leptopelis tadpoles but differs from known East African Leptopelis tadpoles in having a divided first row (P1) of infralabial keratodonts and in having more and longer oral papillae. There are furthermore pronounced differences...
Article
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New Ichthyophis species from Indochina (Gymnophiona, Ichthyophiidae): 1. The unstriped forms with descriptions of three new species and the redescriptions of I. acuminatus Taylor, 1960, I. youngorum Taylor, 1960 and I. laosensis Taylor, 1969 Abstract Caecilians of the genus Ichthyophis Fitzinger, 1826 are among the most poorly known amphibian taxa...
Article
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The tadpole of Ptychadena uzungwensis is described from material collected at Mufindi, southern Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. We provide a detailed description of the tadpole based on an ontogenetic series, including color photographs of living specimens and buccopharyngeal morphology. Identity was confirmed by rearing tadpoles through metamorphosi...
Article
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Aim The persistence and stability of habitats through time are considered predictors of high levels of biodiversity in some environments. Long‐term habitat persistence and stability may explain the species‐rich, endemic forest fauna and flora of the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Region ( EABR ). Using complementary phylogenetic and biogeographic...
Article
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We describe the distinctive but previously overlooked shape and position of the fat bodies of some scolecomorphid caecilians. Anteriorly positioned, finger-like fat bodies projecting into the coelom from narrow bases in the genital mesenteries are found in both sexes of all species of the East African caecilian genus Scolecomorphus and are unknown...
Article
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Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is commonly termed the 'amphibian chytrid fungus' but thus far has been documented to be a pathogen of only batrachian amphibians (anurans and caudatans). It is not proven to infect the limbless, generally poorly known, and mostly soil-dwelling caecilians (Gymnophiona). We conducted the largest qPCR survey of Bd...
Article
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In anurans, defence against predators is achieved through cryptic coloration, behavioural avoidance of predators or through active defences such as fighting, attack or chemical defence (Wells 2007). Behavioural predator avoidance includes an array of responses summarized by Wells (2007), Duellman and Trueb (1994) and more recently by Toledo, Sazima...
Article
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Recent molecular phylogenies suggest the surprising reacquisition of posthatching metamorphosis within an otherwise direct-developing clade of lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae). Metamorphosis was long regarded as plesiomorphic for plethodontids, yet the genus Desmognathus, which primarily includes metamorphosing species, is now nested wi...
Article
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Phylogenetic relationships of the East African caeciliid Boulengerula were reconstructed using 12S, 16S and cytb mitochondrial gene sequences for 32 samples from Kenya and Tanzania. The generally well-supported and resolved phylogeny displayed the following relationships among the five nominate species sampled: (B. boulengeri ((B. taitanus, B. nied...
Article
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Two new species of Callulina are described from the Nguru Mountains, one from the main Nguru South block (C. hanseni sp. nov.) and one from the outlying mountain fragment of the Nguru in Kanga Forest Reserve (C. kanga sp. nov.). The species are diagnosed based on a combination of morphological, acoustic and molecular data. An updated key to the spe...
Article
We investigated the development of the whole skeleton of the soft-shelled turtle Pelodiscus sinensis, with particular emphasis on the pattern and sequence of ossification. Ossification starts at late Tokita-Kuratani stage (TK) 18 with the maxilla, followed by the dentary and prefrontal. The quadrate is the first endoskeletal ossification and appear...
Article
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It is generally assumed that the characteristic deregionalized body plan of species with a snake-like morphology evolved through a corresponding homogenization of Hox gene expression domains along the primary axis. Here, we examine the expression of Hox genes in snake embryos and show that a collinear pattern of Hox expression is retained within th...
Article
The external and musculoskeletal morphology of the head is described for an ontogenetic series of the scoleco-morphid caecilian Scolecomorphus kirkii. The rostral region of foetuses and juveniles is expanded into large, posterolaterally pointing paraoral processes that are formed by the maxilla. Extraoral teeth are present on the underside of the r...
Article
An exceptional form of parental care has recently been discovered in a poorly known caecilian amphibian. Mothers of the Taita Hills (Kenya) endemic Boulengerula taitanus provide their own skin as a food source for their offspring. Field data suggest that nursing is costly. Females found attending young had a lower body condition and fat body volume...
Article
The Kenyan caeciliid caecilian Boulengerula denhardtiNieden 1912 was considered to be a junior synonym of Schistometopum (Dermophis) gregorii (Boulenger, 1894) by Loveridge (1936). This synonymy has been accepted, implicitly or explicitly, by all subsequent workers. Re-examination of the holotype and only known specimen of B. denhardti confirmed Ni...
Article
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An egg clutch of the Tanzanian brevicipitid frog, Probreviceps m. macrodactylus, is described for the first time. The single clutch consists of 32 eggs and 21 infertile, jelly-filled capsules, tightly bound together by a thin, tough outer layer. The infertile capsules are concentrated toward the top of the clutch. The eggs were found in a dry seaso...
Article
Caecilians, or Gymnophiona, constitute one of the three extant orders of the Recent Amphibia and are the least known, major living tetrapod clade. Compared to frogs and salamanders, caecilians have an unusual skull morphology. Earlier reports of an unusually high number of individual skull ossifications in Hypogeophis rostratus are addressed and fo...
Article
Few detailed descriptions of the development of the head skeleton in caecilian amphibians are available. One of those is the work of Marcus and students (e.g., Gehwolf [1923] Z Anat Entwick 68:433-454; Marcus [1933] Anat Anz 80:142-146; Marcus et al. [1935] Gegenbaurs Morphol Jb 76:375-420) on the morphology and development of the skull, lower jaw,...
Article
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Although the initial growth and development of most multicellular animals depends on the provision of yolk, there are many varied contrivances by which animals provide additional or alternative investment in their offspring. Providing offspring with additional nutrition should be favoured by natural selection when the consequent increased fitness o...
Article
Boulengerula uluguruensis is a terrestrial caeciliid caecilian described from the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania. We investigated the relative abundance of B. uluguruensis in agricultural and forested habitats at the beginning of the rainy season. This caecilian was found over a wide altitudinal range (450-1175 m a.s.l.), and in many land cover type...
Article
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A few previous studies of skeletal and especially skull development in Gymnophiona often provided contradictory results. We studied the development of the skull and vertebral column of Gegeneophis ramaswamii, a direct-developing Indian caeciliid, based on 13 specimens. The chondrocranium forms at (Brauer in Zool Jahrb Anat 12:477-508,1899) stage 38...
Article
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The tadpole of Bufo taitanus is described from material recently collected at the type locality. Tadpoles of B. taitanus possess a crownlike structure on top of the head. Observations suggest that the crown likely acts as an accessory respiratory organ. Development in B. taitanus is rapid with metamorphosis completed after just 13 days. Based on it...
Article
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A new species of East African caeciliid caecilian, Boulengerula niedeni spec. nov. (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) is described based on a series of 11 specimens from Sagalla Hill, an isolated moun-tain block of the Taita Hills in southern Kenya. It differs from all other Boulengerula, except B. taitanus (Loveridge), in being pigmented with whitish marked...
Article
The taxonomy of South-East Asian ichthyophiid caecilians is largely in a woeful state. We give a new diagnosis for Ichthyophis supachaii from Thailand, based on a reexamination of the complete type series and recently collected material. The holotype is redescribed. The higher number of splenial than dentary teeth, a previously reported main diagno...
Article
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Boulengerula changamwensis is known only from a few specimens and has not been reported for more than 20 years and from its type locality for 70 years. We here report our recent collection of an additional specimen from the vicinity of the type locality and provide some morphometric and meristic data.
Article
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The African caecilian genus Herpele contains two species, the relatively widespread H. squalostoma (Stutchbury, 1859) and the enigmatic H. multiplicata (Nieden, 1912). The holotype and only reported specimen of H. multiplicata is lost. Consequently, the species is known only from the type description and its taxonomic status has been questioned. We...
Article
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Recent molecular phylogenetic studies indicate that the rafting Indian plate harboured several isolated vertebrate lineages between ca. 130 and 56 Myr ago that dispersed and diversified 'out of India' following accretion with Eurasia. A single family of the amphibian order Gymnophiona, the Ichthyophiidae, presently occurs on the Indian plate and ac...