''Trachycephalus dibernardoi'' is a frog in the family

Hylidae Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as " tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic. Taxonomy and ...

. It is endemic to Brazil and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. Scientists think it might also live in

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

Taxonomy

; Original description This species was originally described in 2008 by the

herpetologists Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (incl ...

Axel Kwet and Mirco Solé.Kwet, Axel and Mirco Solé (2008). A new species of Trachycephalus (Anura: Hylidae) from the Atlantic Rain Forest in southern Brazil. Zootaxa 1947: 53–67. ISSN 1175-5326. ; Type locality The type locality for this species is: "Centro de Pesquisas e Conservação da Natureza (CPCN) Pró Mata, at the following

coordinates In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine and standardize the Position (geometry), position of the Point (geometry), points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as ...

: , at an altitude of 950

meters above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level vari ...

, in the municipality of São Francisco de Paula in the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

, Brazil." ; Holotype The designated

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

is catalogued as follows: MCP 2422; an adult female captured on 20 January 1996, by Axel Kwet and Marcos Di Bernardo. They found it stored in the collection of the PUCRS Museum of Science and Technology in

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...

. ; Etymology The genus name ''Trachycephalus'' comes the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''Trachy'' meaning "rough" and ''cephalus'' meaning "head." The species name ''dibernardoi'' is an

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

referring to the surname of the person to whom the frog is dedicated, the herpetologist Marcos Di Bernardo, in recognition of his valuable contributions to the knowledge of the herpetofauna of Rio Grande do Sul. Di Bernardo, was a professor of zoology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Río Grande do Sul. He captured the holotype with the other scientists named and co-wrote the book ''Pró-Mata: Anfíbios da Serra Gaúcha, Sul do Brasil'' (''Amphibians of Serra Gaúcha, South of Brazil''). In 2006, he died of skin cancer at the age of 42.

Characteristics

This frog is very large for a hylid. Female specimens can measure 77.6 mm in snout-vent length and males 57.2 mm. The iris of the eye is yellow and has a characteristic pattern of black lines that form a pattern with radial symmetry with four clear marks resembling petals. The skin of its back can appear brown or olive in color with a pattern of eyemarks and other patches. There are black and white bands on its legs. Unlike '' T. imitatrix'', it has a white parallelogram extending from each eye to the sacrum.

Distribution and habitat

Within Brazil, it has been found in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (municipalities of São Francisco de Paula, at 950 m, and Machadinho, at 760 m) in the western part of the state of Santa Catarina (municipality of

Seara Seara is a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil. The Museu Entomológico Fritz Plaumann is located in the town. See also *List of municipalities in Santa Catarina This is a list of the municipalities in t ...

, at 550 m). It also lives in the very northeastern part of

, in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Misiones Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes P ...

, according to material from the El Soberbio (department of

Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to Ethnography * Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia) * Guarani language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay * G ...

, at 190 m), reported under the name '' Phrynohyas imitatrix''.Lavilla, E. O., Barrionuevo, J. S. & Baldo, J. D. (2002). Los anfibios insuficientemente conocidos en Argentina. Una reevaluación. Cuadernos de Herpetología 16, 99–118. Scientists suspect this frog has a wide distribution between altitudes of 150 and 1100 meters above sea level throughout the Sierra Geral and adjacent areas, with other possible populations in western

and in the state of

Paraná Paraná, Paranã or Parana may refer to: Geology * Paraná Basin, a sedimentary basin in South America Places In Argentina *Paraná, Entre Ríos, a city * Paraná Department, a part of Entre Ríos Province In Brazil *Paraná (state), a state ...

in Brazil.

Conservation

The

International Union for the Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

(IUCN), classifies this species as "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

" in its

Red List of Endangered Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological spe ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4677717 Trachycephalus Amphibians of Argentina Frogs of Brazil