Sandra Goutte

New York University Abu Dhabi

The aim of the current study was to provide a description of the species composition and habitat association of anuran species found in the Keffa area of southwest Ethiopia, among the least studied natural areas in Ethiopia. Data were gathered in both the rainy and dry seasons. Opportunistic observations, audio, and visual encounters were used to p...

Frogs of the genus Leptopelis have diversified in the Ethiopian Highlands to occupy forests and montane grasslands both east and west of the Great Rift Valley. Genetic studies revealed that the endemic species Leptopelis gramineus (Boulenger, 1898) comprises multiple unnamed taxa. A careful examination of historical type specimens is, however, need...

Traits shared among distantly related lineages are indicators of common evolutionary constraints, at the ecological, physiological or molecular level. Here, we show that the vertebral stripe, a cryptic color pattern, has evolved hundreds of times in the evolutionary history of anurans (frogs and toads) and is favored in terrestrial habitats. Using...

The taxonomy of the Ptychadenaneumanni species complex, a radiation of grass frogs inhabiting the Ethiopian highlands, has puzzled scientists for decades because of the morphological resemblance among its members. Whilst molecular phylogenetic methods allowed the discovery of several species in recent years, assigning pre-existing and new names to...

Traits shared among distantly related lineages are indicators of common evolutionary constraints, at the ecological, physiological or molecular level. The vertebral stripe is a color pattern that is widespread across the anuran phylogeny. Despite its prevalence in the order, surprisingly little is known about the genetic basis and evolutionary dyna...

Frogs of the genus Ptychadena that inhabit the Ethiopian highlands serve as a model system to understand biogeography, diversification, and adaptations to high elevations. Despite recent studies focusing on the systematics of this group, the taxonomy of the Ptychadena neumanni species complex remains only partially resolved, owing largely to the mo...

Arginine vasotocin (AVT) and its homolog arginine vasopressin (AVP) modulate social behavior, including social communication. In anuran amphibians, male-male competition and female mate choice rely heavily on acoustic signaling. Behavioral experiments show that AVT influences motivation to call and vocal production. It may also influence how males...

Animals show a rich diversity of signals and displays. Among the many selective forces driving the evolution of communication between individuals, one widely recognized factor is the structure of the environment in which signals are produced, transmitted and received. In particular, animals communicating by sounds often emit acoustic signals from s...

Animals show a rich diversity of signals and displays. Among the many selective forces driving the evolution of communication signals, one widely recognized factor is the structure of the environment where animals communicate. In particular, animals communicating by sounds often emit acoustic signals from specific locations, such as high up in the...

In animal communication, receivers benefit from signals providing reliable information on signalers' traits of interest. Individuals involved in conflicts, such as competition between rivals, should pay particular attention to cues that are "unfakeable" by the senders due to the intrinsic properties of the production process. In bioacoustics, the b...

Abstract Allometric constraint is a product of natural selection and physical laws, particularly with respect to body size and traits constrained by properties thereof, such as metabolism, longevity, and vocal frequency. Allometric relationships are often conserved across lineages, indicating that physical constraints dictate scaling patterns in de...

In animal communication, receivers benefit from signals providing reliable information on signallers' traits of interest. Individuals involved in conflicts, such as competition between rivals, should pay particular attention to cues that are 'unfakeable' by the senders due to the intrinsic properties of the production process. In bioacoustics, the...

The phenomenon of fluorescence can be used by animals to change effective colouration or patterning, potentially to serve functions including intra- and interspecific signalling. Initially believed to be restricted to marine animals, fluorescent colours are now being described in an increasing number of terrestrial species. Here, we describe unique...

The phenomenon of fluorescence can be used by animals to change effective colouration or patterning, potentially to serve functions including intra- and interspecific signalling. Initially believed to be restricted to marine animals, fluorescent colours are now being described in an increasing number of terrestrial species. Here, we describe unique...

Urbanization can cause species to adjust their sexual displays, because the effectiveness of mating signals is influenced by environmental conditions. Despite many examples that show that mating signals in urban conditions differ from those in rural conditions, we do not know whether these differences provide a combined reproductive and survival be...

A new species of Phrynobatrachus is described from the unexplored and isolated Bibita Mountain, southwestern Ethiopia, based on morphological characters and sequences of the mitochondrial rRNA16s. The new species can be distinguished from all its congeners by a small size (SVL = 16.8 ± 0.1 mm for males, 20.3 ± 0.9 mm for females), a slender body wi...

Acoustic signals are widely used by both terrestrial and aquatic animals to communicate, and bioacoustics is increasingly used to survey natural, acoustically active communities. More and more acoustic data are made available and await being used in public sound libraries; these data have proved a valuable tool in various fields ranging from ecolog...

Long distance acoustic signals are widely used in animal communication systems and, in many cases, essential for reproduction. The Acoustic Adaptation Hypothesis (AAH) implies that acoustic signals should be selected for further transmission and better content integrity under the acoustic constraints of the habitat in which they are produced. In th...

The emergence and maintenance of animal communication systems requires the co-evolution of signal and receiver. Frogs and toads rely heavily on acoustic communication for coordinating reproduction and typically have ears tuned to the dominant frequency of their vocalizations, allowing discrimination from background noise and heterospecific calls. H...

Adaptive radiations are major drivers of diversification which are triggered by novel ecological opportunities or opening of new niches due to innovations of variable traits, including key features of communication systems. For example, groups of animals that communicate using a particular type of signal that is not used by other species or not det...

The diversity of stream anurans in Southeast Asia is highly endangered by habitat loss and fragmentation. To optimise conservation planning, their distribution patterns and habitat requirements need to be better understood. In this study, we investigated the distribution and habitat requirements of stream-associated anurans across four sites in nor...

While acoustic signals are important for communication in many taxa, signal propagation is affected by environmental properties. Strong environmental constraints should drive call evolution, favoring signals with greater transmission distance and content integrity in a given calling habitat. Yet, few empirical studies have verified this prediction,...

Habitat characterisation is a pivotal step of any animal ecology study. The choice of variables used to describe habitats is crucial and need to be relevant to the ecology and behaviour of the species, in order to reflect biologically meaningful distribution patterns. In many species, acoustic communication is critical to individuals' interactions,...

The effect of consumers on their resources has been demonstrated in many systems but is often confounded by trophic interactions with other consumers. Consumers may also have behavioral and life history adaptations to each other and to co-occurring predators that may additionally modulate their particular roles in ecosystems. We experimentally excl...

Statistical methods for split-plot design and analytical framework for structural and process responses. (DOC)

Benthic invertebrate tallies for control and electrified treatments in three reaches. (DOC)

Túngara frogs produce calls of varying complexity that consist of a whine followed by 0–7 chucks. In previous studies using static playbacks, males increase chuck number in response to calls with 1 versus 0 chucks but not in response to 2 or 3 versus 1 chuck. Here we use dynamic playback in which an automated interaction program counts the number o...