Luis Felipe Toledo

State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) | UNICAMP · Departamento de Biologia Animal

The genus Brachycephalus includes miniaturized toadlets with two distinct morphotypes: brightly colored species with a bufoniform phenotype and smaller, cryptic species with a leptodactyliform phenotype. The diversity of leptodactyliform species is still underappreciated, and we generally lack fundamental information about their biology. Recent sam...

Raw data and R-code for the research approach on phylogenetic multiple imputation of natural history traits for tetrapod species. In brief, the code computes the phylogenetic filters, reproduces the grid search procedure to tune XGBoost hyperparameters; compute phylogenetic multiple imputations for traits related to body length, body mass, activity...

Please, access the file through its DOI. Version 1.0.0 (19 April 2024). TetrapodTraits, the full phylogenetically coherent database we developed, is being made publicly available to support a range of research applications in ecology, evolution, and conservation and to help minimise the impacts of biassed data in this model system. The database inc...

The onset of global climate change has led to abnormal rainfall patterns, disrupting associations between wildlife and their symbiotic microorganisms. We monitored a population of pumpkin toadlets and their skin bacteria in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest during a drought. Given the recognized ability of some amphibian skin bacteria to inhibit the wi...

Global change is predicted to induce shifts in anuran acoustic behavior, which can be studied through passive acoustic monitoring (PAM). Understanding changes in calling behavior requires automatic identification of anuran species, which is challenging due to the particular characteristics of neotropical soundscapes. In this paper, we introduce a l...

Background. Animal communication consists of signal production and perception, which are crucial for social interactions. The main form used by anurans is auditory communication, in most cases produced as advertisement calls. Furthermore, sound perception happens mainly through an external tympanic membrane, and plays an important role in social be...

Predator-prey interactions are fundamental to understand how energy flows in trophic food webs. Frogs play a central role in Neotropical food webs, as they are prey and predators for many animals, including other frogs. In particular, species of the genus Leptodactylus have been reported as predators of several frogs, thus being a model to understa...

Anurans of the genus Brachycephalus are among the smallest vertebrates in the world, due to an extreme process of miniaturization. As an example of this process, Brachycephalus species show loss of fingers, loss of the eardrum and middle ear, bone fusions, and the presence of paravertebral plates and parotic plaque. However, no studies addressing t...

Emerging infectious diseases are a major cause of amphibian declines worldwide. Two of these diseases are amphibian chytridiomycosis caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and a viral disease caused by different ranaviruses (Rv). Whereas Bd is known to be widespread in Brazil, Rv was only recently detected in natural habit...

Systematic assessments of species extinction risk at regular intervals are necessary for informing conservation action1,2. Ongoing developments in taxonomy, threatening processes and research further underscore the need for reassessment3,4. Here we report the findings of the second Global Amphibian Assessment, evaluating 8,011 species for the Inter...

Systematic assessments of species extinction risk at regular intervals are necessary for informing conservation action1,2. Ongoing developments in taxonomy, threatening processes and research further underscore the need for reassessment3,4. Here we report the findings of the second Global Amphibian Assessment, evaluating 8,011 species for the Inter...

By altering the abundance, diversity, and distribution of species—and their pathogens—globalization may inadvertently select for more virulent pathogens. In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, a hotspot of amphibian biodiversity, the global amphibian trade has facilitated the co-occurrence of previously isolated enzootic and panzootic lineages of the pathoge...

Anurans communicate using different modes, such as acoustic, visual, and chemical signaling, which can be displayed independently or in a multimodal context. While knowledge of anuran acoustic communication has advanced substantially in recent decades, few reports have shown that amphibians communicate using seismic signals. Here we describe the vo...

Ilhas sempre foram grandes laboratórios para cientistas. Por se tratarem de um recorte isolado e simplificado do ambiente encontrado no continente, as ilhas são ideais para compreensão dos fenômenos naturais que acontecem ali e em outras regiões do planeta. Ilhas podem ser classificadas de acordo com seu grau de isolamento geológico, ou de acordo c...

Global change is predicted to induce shifts in anuran acoustic behavior, which can be studied through passive acoustic monitoring (PAM). Understanding changes in calling behavior requires the identification of anuran species, which is challenging due to the particular characteristics of neotropical soundscapes. In this paper, we introduce a large-s...

Amphibian populations are declining at unprecedented rates across the globe. Some declines occur in a short timeframe and are promptly detected, others are happening in a much slower pace, making them more difficult to detect. One approach that could revel these hidden declines is through analyses of individual historical records. Here, based on an...

The genus Dendrophryniscus belongs to the family Bufonidae and includes 16 species of Neotropical frogs endemic to the Atlantic Forest. Most species of the genus have bromeligenous habits, while some species use temporary pools for reproduction. The genus has many similar species, making specific identification based solely on adult morphology...

Fog is an important water input in ecosystems and a carrier of microorganisms, including unicellular pathogens. The aquatic amphibian-killing fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has a complex transport dynamic. Understanding how the exposure of amphibians to Bd can occur is important for the development of control measurements and for prev...

The Global Panzootic Lineage (GPL) of the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ( Bd ) has caused severe amphibian population declines, yet the drivers underlying the high frequency of GPL in regions of amphibian decline are unclear. Using publicly available Bd genome sequences, we identified multiple non-GPL Bd isolates that contain a c...

Tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have become a central model system for global ecology, conservation, and biodiversity science at large. But continuing data gaps, limited data standardisation, and ongoing dynamics of taxonomic nomenclature put constraints on robust integrative research in this group and potentially causes biased...

Invasive species are on the rise. It is a global problem and early detections of alien species may be the key to control and eradicate potentially invasive populations. Thus, we gathered information of amphibian and reptile species that were introduced to or from the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, in the northeast of Brazil. We found that at l...

Infectious diseases of wildlife continue to pose a threat to biodiversity worldwide, yet pathogens are far from uniform in virulence or host disease outcome. Within the same pathogen species, virulence can vary considerably depending on strain or lineage, in turn eliciting variable host responses. One pathogen that has caused extensive biodiversity...

Amphibians are facing population declines and extinctions across the globe, and megadiverse Brazil is no exception. One of the global hotspots of amphibian declines is Brazil's Atlantic Forest (AF), an ecoregion that in the past covered over 1,300,000 km 2 of luxuriant coastal rainforests. Reports of historical declines were concentrated in the sou...

Microbial diversity positively influences community resilience of the host microbiome. However, extinction risk factors such as habitat specialization, narrow environmental tolerances, and exposure to anthropogenic disturbance may homogenize host-associated microbial communities critical for stress responses including disease defense. In a dataset...

Infectious diseases are one of the main threats to biodiversity. The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is associated with several amphibian losses around the globe, and environmental conditions may dictate the success of pathogen spread. The Brazilian Amazon has been considered climatically unsuitable for chytrid fungus, but additional inf...

Entre los animales vertebrados, los anfibios son el grupo de transición entre los ambientes acuático y terrestre, y está formado por tres órdenes: Anura (sapos y ranas), Caudata (salamandras y ajolotes) y Gymnophiona (cecilias).

We monitored a recently discovered population of Paratelmatobius mantiqueira for 13 months and gathered new data for the species:external morphology of tadpoles, acoustic repertoire, and life his-tory traits. We also collected unprecedented data on behavioursand interactions of adults and tadpoles observed during monitor-ing. Based on natural marki...

Widespread introduced species can be leveraged to investigate the genetic, ecological and adaptive processes underlying rapid evolution and range expansion, particularly the contributions of genetic diversity to adaptation. Rhinella marina, the cane toad, has been a focus of invasion biology for decades in Australia. However, their introduction his...

By altering the abundance, diversity, and distribution of species - and their pathogens - globalization may inadvertently select for more virulent pathogens. In Brazil's Atlantic Forest, a hotspot of amphibian biodiversity, the pet trade has facilitated the co-occurrence of previously isolated enzootic and panzootic lineages of the pathogenic amphi...

Habitat fragmentation and infectious diseases threaten wildlife globally, but the interactions of these threats are poorly understood. For instance, while habitat fragmentation can impact genetic diversity at neutral loci, the impacts on disease-relevant loci are less well-studied. We examined the effects of habitat fragmentation in Brazil’s Atlant...

Animal acoustic communication can be challenging under intense noise. Amphibians that inhabit noisy environments offer a great opportunity to study potential mechanisms that maximise signal transmission. Based on the hypothesis that frogs can adjust their calls to circumvent communication problems, we tested the effect of the duration of biotic sou...

Here, we investigate the influence of scale on different drivers influencing the occurrence of the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. We used gridded values of proxies of the abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic components of landscapes where Bd infects amphibians. Building upon disease prevalence data...

Anurans commonly use sound signals as the main form of communication. This system is diverse in both structure and social functions, and can be used from mate recognition until evaluation of conspecifics. Consequently, when in noisy environments, the main constraint is to correctly identify acoustic signals. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the in...

Anuran larvae in aquatic environments are important prey items for several vertebrate and invertebrate species. Besides avoiding predation, there are some strategies that may reduce the physical damage in those tadpoles that survive the predation attempt. For example, the injured tadpole tail can regrow after a predator bite, but few studies have e...

Non-native species are a major problem affecting numerous biomes around the globe. Information on their population genetics is crucial for understanding their invasion history and dynamics. We evaluated the population structure of the non-native American bullfrog, Aquarana catesbeiana, in Brazil on the basis of 324 samples collected from feral and...

Amphibians breeding in aquatic environments may encounter a myriad of threats during their life cycle. One species known to prey on native amphibians in aquatic habitats is the invasive North American bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus, which, besides being a voracious predator and competitor, often acts as a pathogen carrier and disease superspreade...

Infectious diseases of wildlife continue to pose a threat to biodiversity worldwide, yet pathogens are far from monolithic in virulence. Within the same pathogen species, virulence can vary considerably depending on strain or lineage, in turn eliciting variable host responses. One pathogen that has caused extensive biodiversity loss is the amphibia...

In recent decades, the development of new sampling techniques has allowed us to more easily collect novel samples that enrich our knowledge of the specimens we study. In this sense, audiovisual samples, especially acoustic signal recordings, have become an essential part of herpetological research. The correct storage of these specimens is key to s...

The genus Brachycephalus is a fascinating group of miniaturized anurans from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, comprising the conspicuous, brightly colored pumpkin-toadlets and the cryptic flea-toads. Pumpkin-toadlets are known to contain tetrodotoxins and therefore, their bright colors may perform an aposematic function. Previous studies based on a l...

Anuran communication involves different channels of signal transmission, including acoustic, chemical, seismic, tactile, and visual stimuli. If emitted in combination, the components of the different channels form the multimodal communication, which can be important to reinforce, complement , or transfer fundamental information. This is especially...

Anurans that breed in rivers and cascade streams need to deal with the influence of the low-frequency water flow noise that could interfere with their acoustic communication. To overcome that, some species display visual signals or emit high-pitched calls. However, there is a constraint related to body size [snout-vent length (SVL)] that limits the...

Mycoviruses may influence the pathogenicity of disease-causing fungi. Although mycoviruses have been found in some chytrid fungi, limited testing has not detected them in Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the cause of the devastating amphibian disease, chytridiomycosis. Here we conducted a survey for mycovirus presence in 38 Bd isolates from Aus...

World population growth demands an accelerated increase in food production especially that of animal origin. One of the main global challenges is to couple such a production with environmental health. The production of aquatic animals, i.e., aquaculture, tends to be less harmful to the environment due to the reduction of crop yield requirements and...

Anthropogenic forces are increasing climate anomalies and disease pressure in tropical forests. Terrestrial-breeding amphibians, a diverse group of highly endemic tropical frogs, have been experiencing cryptic population declines and extinctions, most of which have been retrospectively linked to climate anomalies and the fungal pathogen Batrachochy...

Illegal wildlife trade is historical and has not been contained. With the popularization of the internet and social media globally, we hypothesized that illegal trade would be facilitated and predict that trade will increase. To test the hypothesis, we surveyed amphibian illegal trade on Facebook groups in the last 5 y between 2015 and 2020 in Braz...

In an elevational gradient, the mountain top generally presents a reduced species diversity. However, it is there where we often find microendemic and quite often still undescribed species. That European Journal of Taxonomy 764: 119-151 (2021) 120 prediction is very common in underexplored Neotropical mountains, like those of the Caparaó National P...

Body deformities are often linked to environmental disturbances when the proportion of affected individuals exceeds 10% of the population. Thus, amphibians can help improving both ecosystems and human welfare. We studied a potential cause of deformities in an introduced population of toads on a Brazilian island where the prevalence exceeds 50%. We...

Amphibian reproductive modes (RMs) have been extensively described and applied to amphibian biology studies. However, due to new behavioural observations and past system inconsistencies we found it necessary to review the current classification and redefine the sets of characters which define amphibian RMs. We suggest the use of 11 characters that...

We mapped the distribution of two defensive behaviors (balling and head hiding) of Neotropical snakes to evaluate its distribution in distinct phylogenetic groups. Balling behavior was observed in 58 out of the 167 examined species across seven families. Head hiding was observed in a total of 100 species across nine families. From the high prevalen...

The host-associated microbiome plays a significant role in health. However, the roles of factors such as host genetics and microbial interactions in determining microbiome diversity remain unclear. We examined these factors using amplicon-based sequencing of 175 Thoropa taophora frog skin swabs collected from a naturally fragmented landscape in sou...

Chytridiomycosis, an emergent infectious disease caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is considered one of the drivers of the current amphibian biodiversity loss. To inform endangered species conservation efforts, it is essential to improve our knowledge about the abiotic and biotic factors that influence Bd infection dynamics...

The family Hylodidae is composed of 46 species distributed in three genera: Crossodactylus (13 species), Hylodes (26 species), and Megaelosia (seven species). Although the monophyly of the Hylodidae is supported by previous molecular phylogenetic inferences, the monophyly of Megaelosia and/or Hylodes has been questioned. Crossodactylus and Hylodes...

Complex interactions among hosts, pathogens, and the environment affect the vulnerability of amphibians to the emergence of infectious diseases such as chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Boana curupi is a forest-dwelling amphibian endemic to the southern Atlantic Forest of South America, a severely fragmented region. H...

The following list includes all recognized species of amphibians, known by vouchers or published information to occur within the political borders of Brazil (as of April 2021). Supra-generic taxonomy follows Frost (2021), as do most generic and species names. Other taxonomic decisions and species exclusions are explained below. All inclusions relat...

Niche conservatism explains biological invasions worldwide. However, a plethora of ecological processes may lead invasive species to occupy environments that are different from those found within native ranges. Here, we assess the potential invadable areas of the world’s most pervasive invasive amphibians: the cane toad, Rhinella marina + R. horrib...

Environmental variation along elevational gradients shapes conditions for pathogen development, which influences disease outcomes. Chytridiomycosis is a non-vectored disease caused by the aquatic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and is responsible for massive declines of amphibian populations all over the world. Several biotic and abiotic...

Spectral properties of animal acoustic signals may help individuals to assess the characteristics of rivals and to adjust their competitive strategies in territorial disputes. Thus, we hypothesized that the distribution of energy across frequency bands in anuran calls determines behavioral responses in male-male competition. Using playback experime...

en The chytrid fungus (Bd) is one of the main causes of recent amphibian population declines and extinctions. However, one possible disease transmission pathway remained unexplored: the insect‐borne transport between hosts. We found Bd DNA on specialized blood‐sucking midges, which could indicate the transport of alive zoospores between amphibian h...

The global amphibian extinction crisis has challenged scientists around the globe for decades. Robust long-term time-series data to detect such population declines are key to understanding how species respond to climatic variations. Thus, we assessed the species' richness and abundance of an anuran assemblage in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, where...

Amphibian skin bacteria may confer protection against the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), but responses of skin bacteria to different Bd lineages are poorly understood. The global panzootic lineage (Bd-GPL) has caused amphibian declines and extinctions globally. However, other lineages are enzootic (Bd-Asia-2/Brazil). Increased contact...

Latitudinal gradients are linked to the dynamics of infectious diseases. Both prevalence and infection intensity of the amphibian-killing fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), vary with latitude. Here, we tested whether abiotic and biotic factors are associated with Bd infection prevalence and intensity along a large latitudinal gradient acr...

Anthropogenic introduction of non-native species has occurred since the first European colonization of South America in the 1500s, with the Atlantic Forest being the most heavily affected biome in the continent. Biological invasions, together with other anthropogenic pressures occurring over the subsequent 500 years, led to many biological changes...

Habitat fragmentation and infectious disease threaten amphibians globally, but little is known about how these two threats interact. In this study, we examined the effects of Brazilian Atlantic Forest habitat fragmentation on frog genetic diversity at an immune locus known to affect disease susceptibility in amphibians, the MHC IIB locus. We used a...

In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest (AF) biodiversity conservation is of key importance since the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has led to the rapid loss of amphibian populations here and worldwide. The impact of Bd on amphibians is determined by the host's immune system, of which the skin microbiome is a critical component. The richn...

Amphibians have been facing a pandemic caused by the deadly fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ( Bd ). Although studies have elucidated cutaneous and homeostatic disturbances, it is still unknown if the hepatic function can be affected or if hepatic effects differ among host species. Thus, we evaluated the effects of an experimental Bd infection...