Laura Sandberger-Loua

Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity | MFN · Evolution and Geoprocesses - Biodiversity Dynamics

We describe a new species of the genus Conraua from the Fouta Djallon Highlands in Guinea. The species is recognised as distinct from nominotypical C. alleni, based on morphological evidence and is supported by a recent species delimitation analysis, based on DNA sequence data. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by the unique combi...

Although frogs are predominately opportunistic carnivores, numerous studies report large amounts of plant material in anuran stomachs, citing accidental ingestion as the likely cause. Herein, we present evidence suggesting deliberate plant uptake in the Sabre-toothed Frog (Odontobatrachus ziama) and propose that this trait is specific to the entire...

We describe a new species of the genus Conraua from the Fouta Djallon Highlands in Guinea. The species is recognised as distinct from nominotypical C. alleni , based on morphological evidence and is supported by a recent species delimitation analysis, based on DNA sequence data. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by the unique comb...

Citation: Rödel, M.-O., Adum, G.B., Aruna, E., Assemian, N.E., Barej, M.F., Bell, R.C., Burger, M., Demare, G., Doherty-Bone, T., Doumbia, J., Ernst, R., Gonwouo, N.L., Hillers, A., Hirschfeld, M., Jongsma, G.F.M., Kouamé, N.G., Kpan, T.F., Mohneke, M., Nago, S.G.A., Ofori-Boateng, C., Onadeko, A., Pauwels, O.S.G., Sandberger-Loua, L., Segniagbeto,...

Anthropogenic habitat alteration often increases fragmentation and isolation, which decreases population sizes and increases extinction risk for species. Extrinsic threats may be buffered or enhanced by intrinsic factors. Within amphibians, the influence of different environmental and intrinsic factors on the population structure is not yet fully u...

We report the rediscovery of the skink Trachylepis keroanensis (Chabanaud, 1921) 90 years after its description. For the first time pictures of live specimens are shown and the known, now extended, distribution is presented. The clear morphological differences (body shape, colouration and most notably ratio tail length to body length) towards Trach...

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...

Anurans are renowned for a high diversity of reproductive modes, but less than 1 % of species exhibit internal fertilisation followed by viviparity. In the live-bearing West African Nimba toad (Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis), females produce yolk-poor eggs and internally nourish their young after fertilisation. Birth of fully developed juveniles tak...

Conservation efforts should be directed to species and areas in particular need. Several concepts for conservation prioritisation exist. Following appropriate measures, we determined the World Heritage Site (WHS) “Nimba Mountains” and its flagship-species, the Nimba toad (Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis), to be both “irreplaceable” and “vulnerable”. T...

West African torrent-frogs of the genus Odontobatrachus currently belong to a single species: Odontobatrachus natator (Boulenger, 1905). Recently, molecular results and biogeographic separation led to the recognition of five Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) thus identifying a species-complex. Based on these insights, morphological analyses on mor...

A putative driver of global amphibian decline is the panzootic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). While Bd has been documented across continental Africa, its distribution in West Africa remains ambiguous. We tested 793 West African amphibians (one caecilian and 61 anuran species) for the presence of Bd. The samples originated from...

List of West African caecilian and anuran species tested for the presence of Bd , and their main ecological characters. (PDF)

List of study areas, their geographic positions as well as details of sampling and analysis for each sample. (XLS)

Details of the variable contributions to the calculated ENMs. (PDF)

List of positive African Bd records. (PDF)

We describe a new small Phrynobatrachus species from southern Cameroon. The new species exhibits a combination of unique morphological characters and a distinctive colour pattern consisting of a black lateral face mask, a black throat in males, a white throat with uniform black lower mandibles in females and a white belly in both sexes. Morphologic...

We describe a new small Phrynobatrachus species from western Nigeria, the eastern-most part of the Upper Guinea biodiversity hotspot. The new species exhibits a combination of unique morphological characters and a belly without pattern. Morphologically it is characterised by small size, compact roundish body with a round and short snout, large eyes...

Astylosternus laticephalus sp. nov. Rödel, Hillers, Leaché, Kouamé, Ofori-Boateng, Diaz & Sandberger is described from eastern Ivory Coast and western and central Ghana, and compared to Astylosternus occidentalis Parker, 1931 from the western part of the Upper Guinea forest zone (western Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone). Based on a co...

Arthroleptis langeri Rödel, Doumbia, Johnson & Hillers 2009 is a genetically and morphologically distinct West African squeaker frog species. It was described based on one individual from a forest at 567 m a.s.l. in the East Nimba National Forest, Liberia. However, it was believed to be potentially more widespread in the Western Guinean rainforest...

Currently 14 Phrynobatrachus species are known to occur in Guinea (Frétey 2008; Frost 2011). The recently discovered species, Phrynobatrachus pintoi Hillers, Zimkus and Rödel, 2008, was described from the Boké region, north-western Guinea (Hillers et al. 2008). Although this description comprised distinct morphological and genetic characters, it wa...

A new small Arthroleptis from western Guinea, West Africa, is described. The new species differs from all known congeners by the combination of small size and a peculiar red dorsal colour with irregular large black and small white, yellow or blue spots. The ventral side is almost uniform greyish black with a few, small white spots. Males lack hyper...

We herein re-investigate the taxonomic status of Hyperolius nitidulus Peters, 1875 and H. spatzi Ahl, 1931 by means of morphology, vocalization and genetic data. Both taxa are morphologically distinct, have different advertisement calls and differ genetically from each other by 5.1–5.6% sequence divergence in the investigated 16S rRNA gene. Based o...

Data on population dynamics and distribution are of primary interest to biologists because they reveal information about the species' ecology and evolution and are thus essential for conservation efforts. Patchily distributed species are especially interesting for conservation studies, because of their sometimes very specific environmental requirem...

We report on the search and rediscovery of the Liberian Nimba toad, Nimbaphrynoides liberiensis, 30 years after its original description. A small surviving population could be traced in the surroundings of the type locality Mount Alpha, Liberia. The type locality was meanwhile destroyed by open cast mining. Similar to the Guinean Nimba toad, Nimbap...

Phrynobatrachus maculiventris Guibé & Lamotte, 1958 is a valid species. Herein we clarify its taxonomic status, re‐describe it, and provide the first description of its tadpole. The tadpoles’ specific identity was assessed through DNA barcoding. Phrynobatrachus maculiventris adults differ from all other West African Phrynobatrachus species by a com...