Howlader Mohammad Sajid Ali, Nair Abhilash, Merilä Juha
Ecological Genetics Research Unit, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
PLoS One. 2016 Mar 2;11(3):e0149597. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149597. eCollection 2016.
We describe a new species of frog of the genus Zakerana discovered from the urban core of Dhaka, Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Although the new species is morphologically similar to the geographically proximate congeners in the Bangladeshi cricket frog group, we show that it can be distinguished from all congeners on the basis of morphological characters, advertisement calls and variation in two mitochondrial DNA genes (12S rRNA and 16S rRNA). Apart from several diagnostic differences in body proportions, the new species differs from other Zakerana species in having a flattened snout (from ventral view) projecting over the lower jaw, and diagnostic trapezoid-shaped red markings on the vocal sac in males. Molecular genetic analyses show that the new species is highly divergent (3.1-20.1% sequence divergence) from all congeneric species, and forms a well-supported clade with its sister species, Zakerana asmati. The discovery of a new amphibian species from the urban core of Dhaka together with several recent descriptions of new amphibian species from Bangladesh may indicate that more amphibian species remain to be discovered from this country.
我们描述了一种新的扎氏蛙属蛙类，它是在孟加拉国达卡的城市核心区域发现的，达卡是世界上人口最密集的城市之一。尽管这个新物种在形态上与孟加拉国姬蛙群中地理上相近的同类物种相似，但我们表明，基于形态特征、鸣声以及两个线粒体DNA基因（12S rRNA和16S rRNA）的变异，它可以与所有同类物种区分开来。除了身体比例上的几个诊断性差异外，这个新物种与其他扎氏蛙属物种的不同之处在于，其吻部（从腹面观）扁平，突出在下颌之上，并且雄性声囊上有诊断性的梯形红色斑纹。分子遗传学分析表明，这个新物种与所有同类物种的差异很大（序列差异为3.1 - 20.1%），并与其姐妹物种阿斯马蒂扎氏蛙形成了一个得到充分支持的分支。在达卡城市核心区域发现一种新的两栖动物物种，以及最近从孟加拉国描述的几种新两栖动物物种，可能表明这个国家还有更多的两栖动物物种有待发现。
