Ecología, Departamento de Ciencias Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físico-Químicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Ruta Nacional N° 36-Km 601, (X5804BYA) Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina.
Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra, Biodiversidad y Ambiente (ICBIA), UNRC-CONICET, Ruta Nacional N° 36-Km 601, (X5804BYA) Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina.
An Acad Bras Cienc. 2021 Oct 22;93(suppl 4):e20200991. doi: 10.1590/0001-3765202120200991. eCollection 2021.
Age determination in amphibians is crucial to the investigation of life-history traits. In this context, we studied, for the first time, the life-history traits of Boana pulchella from a sample (63 adult males) of three populations (Las Acequias, Río Cuarto, Alejandro Roca) in central Argentina using the skeletochronological method. All adults of B. pulchella studied showed recognizable bone structures that allowed age determination. The average snout-vent length of sexually mature males was 43.39 mm. The maximum observed longevity was 5 years (5 Las Acequias, 4 Río Cuarto, 3 Alejandro Roca) and minimum age at sexual maturity was 2 years (same in the three populations), with mean of 2.96 years. Body size and age were positively correlated (except in Alejandro Roca populations). The growth patterns, estimated by the von Bertalanffy growth equation, do not show differences between populations, and the growth rate decrease after the attainment of sexual maturity. In conclusion, the determination of the individual age of the different populations of B. pulchella allowed us for the first time to establish the characteristics of the life history of the species, important for future comparisons whit others populations and future conservation biology studies.
在研究两栖动物的生活史特征时，年龄测定至关重要。在此背景下，我们首次利用骨骼年代学方法，对来自阿根廷中部三个种群（Las Acequias、Río Cuarto 和 Alejandro Roca）的 63 只成年雄性 Boana pulchella 样本进行了生活史特征研究。所研究的 B. pulchella 所有成年个体均具有可识别的骨骼结构，可用于年龄测定。性成熟雄性个体的平均吻肛长为 43.39 毫米。观察到的最大寿命为 5 年（Las Acequias 种群 5 只，Río Cuarto 种群 4 只，Alejandro Roca 种群 3 只），性成熟的最小年龄为 2 岁（三个种群相同），平均为 2.96 岁。体型和年龄呈正相关（Alejandro Roca 种群除外）。通过 von Bertalanffy 生长方程估计的生长模式在种群之间没有差异，并且在达到性成熟后生长速度会下降。总之，确定不同 B. pulchella 种群个体的年龄使我们首次能够确定该物种的生活史特征，这对于未来与其他种群的比较以及未来的保护生物学研究非常重要。
