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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 sampling efforts, including DNA analyses and recordings of advertisement calls, have improved our understanding of this group. In the present study, we describe a new species of Brachycephalus, one of the smallest vertebrates known. This new species is distinguished from its congeners by a combination of morphological, bioacoustic, and genetic data. Despite being among the smallest frogs globally (the second smallest amphibian species), it exhibits skeletal traits typical of larger frogs, such as the presence of cranial bones that are lost or fused in other miniature frogs, including other Brachycephalus. Our description underscores how new discoveries within the megadiverse fauna of the Atlantic Forest—a rich biodiversity hotspot—can provide insights into phenotypic variation, including vertebrate body size. By describing this new species, we also aim to revisit the hypothesis that the type series of B. hermogenesi includes two species, potentially including individuals of the species described here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vocal sacs are among the most conspicuous features of anurans and are particularly striking in casque-headed treefrogs (Hylidae: Hylinae: Lophyohylini) with their wide array of morphologies. In this paper, we assessed the anatomy of vocal sacs in representatives of the Lophyohylini, described eight discrete characters and studied their evolution. We inferred that dorsolateral projections of the vocal sacs were already present during the early evolution of the tribe. Subsequently, they reached surprising volumes in some species, whereas in others they were notably reduced. We inferred between nine and 11 independent events of reduction of the size and lateral projections of the vocal sac, showing unprecedented levels of plasticity for the structure. Moreover, these events were strongly correlated with the colonization of phytotelmata as breeding sites, probably due to their confined space which hampers the inflation of large vocal sacs. Finally, we discuss the evolution of paired lateral vocal sacs in different groups of anurans, and the extent to which the paired and dorsally-projecting lobes of most Trachycephalus differ from those of distantly related taxa. Our findings highlight how variation in internal structure affects the shape of the inflated vocal sac and provides a framework applicable across the Anura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A remarkably well-preserved, almost complete and articulated new specimen (GP/2E 9266) of Tupandactylus navigans is here described for the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. The new specimen comprises an almost complete skeleton, preserving both the skull and post-cranium, associated with remarkable preservation of soft tissues, which makes it the most complete tapejarid known thus far. CT-Scanning was performed to allow the assessment of bones still covered by sediment. The specimen can be assigned to Tupa. navigans due to its vertical supra-premaxillary bony process and short and rounded parietal crest. It also bears the largest dentary crest among tapejarine pterosaurs and a notarium, which is absent in other representatives of the clade. The new specimen is here regarded as an adult individual. This is the first time that postcranial remains of Tupa. navigans are described, being also an unprecedented record of an articulated tapejarid skeleton from the Araripe Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species of Brachycephalus has been having taxonomical issues due its morphological similarity and genetic conservatism. Herein, we describe a new species of Brachycephalus from the south Mantiqueira mountain range and semidecidual forests in the municipalities of Mogi das Cruzes, Campinas and Jundiaí, state of São Paulo, Brazil, based on an integrative approach. It can be distinguished from all species of the B. ephippium species group based on morphological characters (especially osteology and head shape), advertisement call and divergence in partial mitochondrial DNA gene sequences (16S). The new species is genetically similar to B. margaritatus and morphologically similar to B. ephippium. It can be differentiated from B. ephippium by the presence of dark faded spots on skull and post-cranial plates, presence of black connective tissue connective tissue scattered over dorsal musculature, parotic plate morphology, smaller snout-vent length (adult SVL: males 13.46–15.92 mm; females 16.04–17.69 mm) and 3% genetic distance. We also present natural history data and discuss the robustness of the integrative approach, geographic distribution, genetic data, behaviour, fluorescence in ontogeny, and conservation status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South American and West Indian Casque‐headed Treefrogs (Hylidae: Hylinae: Lophyohylini) include 85 species. These are notably diverse in morphology (e.g. disparate levels of cranial hyperossification) and life history (e.g. different reproductive modes, chemical defences), have a wide distribution, and occupy habitats from the tropical rainforests to semiarid scrubland. In this paper, we present a phylogenetic analysis of this hylid tribe based on sequence fragments of up to five mitochondrial (12S, 16S, ND1, COI, Cytb) and six nuclear genes (POMC, RAG‐1, RHOD, SIAH, TNS3, TYR). We included most of its species (> 96%), in addition to a number of new species. Our results indicate: (i) the paraphyly of Trachycephalus with respect to Aparasphenodon venezolanus; (ii) the nonmonophyly of Aparasphenodon, with Argenteohyla siemersi, Corythomantis galeata and Nyctimantis rugiceps nested within it, and Ap. venezolanus nested within Trachycephalus; (iii) the polyphyly of Corythomantis; (iv) the nonmonophyly of the recognized species groups of Phyllodytes; and (v) a pervasive low support for the deep relationships among the major clades of Lophyohylini, including C. greeningi and the monotypic genera Itapotihyla and Phytotriades. To remedy the nonmonophyly of Aparasphenodon, Corythomantis, and Trachycephalus, we redefined Nyctimantis to include Aparasphenodon (with the exception of Ap. venezolanus, which we transferred to Trachycephalus), Argenteohyla, and C. galeata. Additionally, our results indicate the need for taxonomic work in the following clades: (i) Trachycephalus dibernardoi and Tr. imitatrix; (ii) Tr. atlas, Tr. mambaiensis and Tr. nigromaculatus; and (iii) Phyllodytes. On the basis of our phylogenetic results, we analyzed the evolution of skull hyperossification and reproductive biology, with emphasis on the multiple independent origins of phytotelm breeding, in the context of Anura. We also analyzed the inter‐related aspects of chemical defences, venom delivery, phragmotic behaviour, co‐ossification, and prevention of evaporative water loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social-aware algorithms have marked themselves as the most successful strategies for cost-effective content delivery in mobile opportunistic networks. However, these strategies do not consider the importance of users' geographical locations or the spatial properties of human mobility. Given this fact, in this work we propose to combine spatial and social properties to improve the cost effectiveness of content delivery in opportunistic device-to-device networks. We leverage and describe four spatial and social properties and characterize them in a real-world dataset. As a proof of concept of employing those properties, we propose SAMPLER, a forwarding algorithm that combines social awareness, points of interest within a region, and users' individual mobility patterns to cost-effectively deliver messages in opportunistic device-to-device networks. We compare SAMPLER to the state-of-the-art social-aware algorithm Bubble Rap, and with a modified version of Bubble Rap that incorporates static relay nodes. Our experiments, conducted using both real-world (NCCU) and state-of-the-art synthetic (SWIM) traces, confirm that the combination of social and spatial awareness can increase the delivery performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The increasing ubiquity of mobile devices with inter-connection capability has leveraged the possibility of device-to-device communication. In the next generation cellular networks, device-to-device communication is already considered a fundamental feature. A problem in multihop D2D networks is how to define forwarding algorithms that simultaneously achieve high delivery ratio and low network overhead. In the past decade, several algorithms were proposed to achieve those goals in the context of delay-tolerant networks. Among them, probabilistic and socially aware approaches have become the most successful strategies. However, existent socially aware algorithms do not account for the underlying dynamics and evolving nature of social groups, and require the ability to detect communities, which is a complex and expensive task. In this work, we introduce an opportunistic routing protocol that is aware of group meetings and their evolution over time. Our algorithm is parameter-free and does not require the detection of communities. In large-scale scenarios, our algorithm achieves approximately the same delivery ratio of the state-of-the-art solution with 40 percent less network overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A new species belonging to the Scinax ruber clade, morphologically similar to S. cabralensis and S. rupestris, is described from the Municipality of Miguel Calmon, State of Bahia, northeastern Brazil. This locality belongs to the northern portion of the Espinhaço Range known as Chapada Diamantina, a semiarid region in central Bahia State. The new species can be distinguished from all congeners of the S. ruber clade by a combination of adult (size, morphology, color pattern, and advertisement call) as well as larval (external morphology, and oral cavity) characteristics. The description of this frog adds another species, and the first of the S. ruber clade, to those that are endemic to Chapada Diamantina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proceratophrys caramaschii was described only from a single locality in Mucuripe, Fortaleza municipality, Ceará state, Brazil. The discovery of a new population of this poorly known species facilitated the collection of new data regarding colour in life, vocalization, habitat, and geographic distribution. It has a much wider distribution than formerly thought, is considerably variable in its colour pattern, and its reproductive strategy is strongly associated with the beginning of the rainy season. Males call from the ground and hidden in vegetation. The advertisement call is a short trill of notes. Further data is necessary to evaluate the threat status of this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of Scinax from the lowlands of the Atlantic Rain Forest remains in the southern region of the State of Bahia, North-eastern Brazil, similar to the S. auratus Wied-Neuwied, is described. This species is characterized by the following combination of characters: moderate size (males 23.0-27.1 mm SVL); snout rounded in dorsal view; dorsal colour pattern with dorsolateral yellowish stripe above greenish-brown background, with an interocular yellow transversal bar; vocal sac smooth; presence of a tubercle and dermal fold on tarsus advertisement call with four to five notes; call duration 0.17-0.24 s, dominant frequency 2.07-3.79 kHz. The advertisement call description and informations on natural history are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Secondary effluent from dairy industry was used for Chlorella vulgaris cultivation. • Nitrogen was supplemented for achieving N:P = 1.72:1. • Biomass productivity with effluent was the same as that with standard medium. In this study, secondary effluent from dairy industry was employed for the cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris in a bench-scale tubular photobioreactor. We sought to evaluate the biomass production, the consumption of nitrogen in the medium, and the final biomass composition. Considering the need of nitrogen supplementation, we evaluated the nitrogen:phosphorus ratio: the same proportion found in Bold basal medium (N:P = 1.71:1) and Redfield ratio (N:P = 16:1), comparing with no nitrogen supplementation and Bold Basal Medium. The results showed that nitrogen supplementation improves biomass growth (up to 2824.93 mg.L−1), also granting efficient nutrients consumption (up to 98 % of nitrogen removal). Nitrogen supplementation following the Bold medium ratio was the most suitable protocol, since it requires less nitrogen addition without impairment in biomass productivity (Px =259.90 mg.L−1.d−1), in comparison with cultures with supplementation following Redfield ratio (Px =296.73 mg.L−1.d−1) or control culture (Px =221.02 mg.L−1.d−1). In addition, the final biomass showed satisfactory amounts of proteins (up to 21.92 %) and lipids (up to 35.75 %), besides presenting a profile with high concentrations of saturated (C16:0) and monounsaturated fatty acids (C18:1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following work presents the first study applying the passive acoustic monitoring of anurans at lotic environments for a long time. This study aims to test the efficiency of the passive acoustic monitoring method and active monitoring in detecting anurans in lotic environments of Itinguçu State Park. Specifically, we tested whether species richness differs when comparing active and passive monitoring surveys. Therefore, this study aims to test the efficiency of the passive acoustic monitoring method and active monitoring in detecting anurans in lotic environments of the Itinguçu State Park. The passive acoustic monitoring period was 72 uninterrupted hours at each collection point with intervals of 45 days. Finally, species richness was calculated, and the efficiency of the methods was compared in different scenarios. Our results demonstrated that the park has species that vocalize day and night, but most at night, there is overlapping acoustic niche; waterfall environments harm the quality of recordings; and in lotic environments the active monitoring method was more efficient than the passive acoustic monitoring in all sampling scales. Although the passive acoustic monitoring was not as efficient in a low temporal scale, it tends to increase in efficiency with longer sampling duration.

Diagnostic characters from 227 pterosaur species were listed, separated into cranial or post-cranial elements and counted. From 21 post-cranial and 23 cranial elements, most diagnostic characters were related to phalanges (15%) and rostrum. Post-cranial characters comprise 44.23%, and cranial characters 55.77% of all characters used in pterosaur diagnoses. The highest correlation between diagnostic features occurs between the coracoid and the scapula. 25.11% and 28.63% of sampled taxa were diagnosed with 3-4 and 5-6 characters, respectively. The mean number of 6.79 characters was found in specimens with both cranial and post-cranial elements, and 4.86 and 4.17 in those with just cranial or post-cranial elements, respectively. 31 from 227 species (13.7%) were erected based on single elements, which are most frequently complete or partial mandibles (n=18). We estimate that 23.4% of the total pterosaur genera are currently known, with 90% of this diversity to be unveiled up to 2145. As the requirements of broad and cautious revision of genus/group must be undertaken, and some deposits will provide mostly fragmented and incomplete material, the assignment of fairly incomplete specimens to the most inclusive taxonomic level is feasible. Tracing this scenario can guide future works on the description of new pterosaur taxa.

The frog clade Neobatrachia or "advanced frogs" represents more than 95% of the diversity within Anura. The neobatrachian fossil record is incomplete due to the small size and fragile nature of their bones but provides some clues on the time and rate of the current diversification of modern-day amphibians. The Crato Formation (Aptian) of northeastern Brazil is known for the presence of, at least, five species of neobatrachian fossils. Herein, we describe a well-preserved fossil that represents a new neobatrachian taxon from the Crato Formation (Cretaceous) in the Araripe Basin, northeastern Brazil, and perform phylogenetic analysis to assess its higher-level relationships. The new specimen is an almost complete and articulated skeleton with soft tissue preservation. Phylogenetic analysis recovered the specimen nested in the clade Hyloidea and our results highlight the remarkable value of the Crato Formation as a Laggerstätte.

The genus Proceratophrys Miranda-Ribeiro comprises 41 species distributed in South America, especially in Brazil (Nascimento et al. 2019). Proceratophrys species have been traditionally organized into four species groups based on morphology of supraocular and postocular swellings, and presence or absence of rostral appendage (Cruz Napoli 2010). However, these groupings are not supported by molecular data (Teixeira et al. 2012; Dias et al. 2013, Mângia et al. 2018).

The Hylodidae genus Megaelosia Miranda-Ribeiro comprises seven frog species that inhabit the Atlantic Rainforest in Southeastern Brazil (Da Silva et al. 2018). Larvae and adults of Hylodidae are commonly associated with lotic streams (Giaretta et al. 1993; Silva-Soares et al. 2015). Tadpoles of all Megaelosia species but Megaelosia bocainensis Giaretta, Bokemann Haddad are formally described, even though many of these descriptions are restricted to few lines and several anatomical details were overlooked (e.g., Megaelosia lutzae; Izecksohn Gouvêa 1985). The tadpole of M. boticariana was briefly described by Giaretta Aguiar (1998) based on a single larva with no measurements or figures. Currently, M. boticariana is only known from its type locality and São Francisco Xavier, both in São Paulo state portion of the Serra da Mantiqueira, Brazil (Muscat et al. 2020). The lack of information, coupled with the rarity of the species, reinforces the importance of taxonomic and natural history data to subside works on other fields. In this context, we present a complete redescription of the external anatomy of the tadpoles of M. boticariana and comment on their natural history.

Thoropa Cope is an anuran genus of the family Cycloramphidae that comprises six species of small rock frogs peculiar for the semiterrestrial habits of their larvae, which develop on wet rock environments distributed throughout eastern and southeastern Brazil (Bokermann 1965; Frost 2019). Current knowledge on their tadpoles relies mostly on their descriptions, namely the works of Bokermann (1965) for T. lutzi Cochran and T. petropolitana (Wandolleck), Caramaschi Sazima (1984) for T. megatympanum Caramaschi Sazima, Cocroft Heyer (1988) for T. saxatilis Cocroft Heyer, and Barth (1956) and Fatorelli et al. (2018) for T. miliaris (Spix). Thoropa taophora (Miranda-Ribeiro) tadpoles were originally described by Bokermann (1965) as T. miliaris, but several features were overlooked. In addition, T. taophora was recently removed from the synonymy with T. miliaris (Feio et al. 2006). Herein, we present a complete redescription of the tadpoles of T. taophora and provide comparisons with previously published drawings and descriptions of all other species of the genus.

The taxonomic and biogeographic affinities of Strabomantis aramunha from the Campos Rupestres of Brazil are intriguing. A unique skull morphology of females suggest affinities with the broad-headed eleutherodactylines of Northwestern South America in the genus Strabomantis. Male and juvenile morphology nonetheless suggest S. aramunha could be related to members of the recently described genus Haddadus from eastern Brazil. We assess the affinities of S. aramunha using molecular phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial (12S, tRNAval, 16S, cyt b) and nuclear sequences (RAG-1and rhodopsin). Bayesian inference, likelihood, and parsimony analysis recover a highly supported clade with S. aramunha and H. binotatus as sister taxa. Accordingly, we transfer S. aramunha to Haddadus, and provide a new generic definition of the later. The distribution of species in Haddadus (highlands of the Espinhaço mountain Range and coastal eastern Brazil) is now concordant with the general pattern observed for other species in the area.