A race against extinction: The challenge to overcome the Linnean amphibian shortfall in tropical biodiversity hotspots

Aim

There is an urgent need to explore, characterize, describe and preserve as many species as possible to prevent their decline. Tropical biodiversity hotspots harbour most of the known land diversity and vast amounts of undiscovered and undescribed species. Here, we quantify the taxonomically unassessed amphibian species richness in Madagascar, one of the best-studied and explored tropical hotspots worldwide, to identify knowledge gaps and conservation implications.

Location

Madagascar.

Time Period

Present.

Major Taxa Studied

Amphibians.

Methods

We used the Madagascar amphibian fauna as a model to unveil neglected diversity by analysing 10,873 mitochondrial sequences using species delimitation algorithms and incorporating all previously published bioacoustics, distributional, morphological and nuclear data with an integrative approach.

Results

Besides the currently described 413 species, we identified 408 divergent lineages. Among this, 310 fit the category of candidate species pending a taxonomic assessment, while 98 are considered deep conspecific lineages. These figures suggest that species richness could be twice as high as represented in the current taxonomy. Geographically, most of these candidate species occur in well-studied areas within the island.

Main Conclusions

Despite being one of the best-studied and explored tropical countries worldwide for amphibians, we found that many species are awaiting a taxonomic assessment in Madagascar. Paradoxically, this unassessed diversity concentrates on highly explored regions, emphasizing the importance of exploring and inventorying new areas. Our results highlight the magnitude of the Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls, affecting both species richness estimates and the distribution ranges and biogeographic setting known for this fauna. Current conservation efforts should consider this novel diversity and unexplored areas as they will likely harbour yet many new species to be discovered. We expect similar patterns across less studied tropical realms and encourage researchers to perform such studies in different clades before this neglected biodiversity becomes irremediably lost.