Morphological characterization and taxonomic key of tadpoles (Amphibia: Anura) from the northern region of the Atlantic Forest
Marcos Jorge Matias Dubeux, Filipe Augusto Cavalcanti do Nascimento, L.R.O. de Lima, Felipe de Medeiros Magalhães, Izabel Regina Soares da Silva, Ubiratan Gonçalves, João Paulo Felix Augusto de Almeida, Larissa Lima Correia, Adrian Antonio Garda, Daniel Oliveira Mesquita, Denise de Cerqueira Rossa‐Feres, Tamí Mott
Abstract
Abstract: Although anuran tadpoles are widely distributed and abundant in tropical aquatic habitats, there is a lack of taxonomic keys for the Atlantic Forest. Herein, we developed a dichotomous key for identifying the tadpoles for all species with known larval phase and already recorded in the Atlantic Forest north of the São Francisco River. We analyzed discrete characteristics of 1,042 tadpoles encompassing 63 species of 28 genera from 32 localities. The user-friendly key includes illustration and pictures, and it is a significant step towards improving our knowledge of tadpoles of the Atlantic Forest.