Genetic Diversity in the Last Populations of Craugastor ranoides

Abstract

Across the globe amphibian populations are declining due to chytrid disease, climate change and habitat loss. However, the rate of this decline in terms of the numbers of species lost is difficult to determine, due to the cryptic diversity contained in many amphibian lineages. DNA barcoding using 16S and CO1 gene sequences provides a rapid assessment of cryptic diversity, and the relationships between individuals in sympatric populations. Some amphibian species persist in lowland areas, known as climatic refugia, which protect them from a high prevalence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. One such species, which persists only in the Santa Elena Peninsula, Costa Rica, is the critically endangered Craugastor ranoides.