ANGULO, A.; REICHLE, S.; KWET, A.; University of Toronto; Zoologische Forschungsinstitut und Museum A. Koenig, Bonn; Staatliches Museum fur Naturkunde, Stuttgart: New Amphibian Diversity Estimates and their Implications for Conservation Biology

Although recent times have seen a boost in development of areas ranging from biotechnology to space research, biodiversity assessments regrettably are not among them. We still do not know how many species of organisms inhabit our planet. This information lag touches on all taxa, including amphibians. Amphibian diversity estimates have been limited and infrequent, and ongoing research suggests that species diversity in this class is largely underestimated: many amphibians are morphologically cryptic, making the identification of true species difficult. Using trends derived from reports of new species in traditionally species-rich families over the past decade, current research on Neotropical species cryptic complexes, and undersampled groups such as Adenomera, small species of Hyla, Osteocephalus, and Phrynopus, we generate estimates of amphibian diversity through extrapolation. Comparisons of estimates, and their implications for assessments of declining amphibian populations and general conservation decision-making are discussed.