The Amphibians of Angola: Early Studies and the Current State of Knowledge

Abstract

Angolan amphibians have been studied since the mid-nineteenth century by explorers and scientists from all over the western world, and collections have been deposited in around 20 museums and institutions in Europe, Northern America, and Africa.

A new species of Rain Frog (Brevicipitidae, Breviceps) endemic to Angola

“…Further work is required to confirm the distributional range of B. ombelanonga, as well as whether it overlaps in distribution with either its sister taxon, B. poweri, or the more distantly related B. adspersus. Both occur in neighboring countries, B. poweri to the east/northeast (Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo) and the B. adspersus to the south/southeast (Namibia, Botswana), and both have been suggested to occur in Angola (Ruas 2002;Marques et al 2018;Baptista et al 2019;Channing and Rödel 2019;Fig. 1A).…”

“…The central and eastern localities of B. ombelanonga, as well as the latter from either B. adspersus or B. poweri, may be separated by drainage basins; however, with no contemporary sampling across regions spanning hundreds of kilometers, it is difficult to test these broad biogeographic hypotheses. Many recent initiatives have improved the current state of knowledge of Angola's herpetofauna, as well as to identify priority areas for future field survey work (Ceríaco et al 2014(Ceríaco et al , 2016Conradie et al 2016;Heinicke et al 2017;Marques et al 2018;Baptista et al 2019;Butler et al 2019;Ernst et al 2020), yet these efforts have still only scratched the surface. Additional, comprehensive field surveys, particularly those with focused/specialized efforts to record hard-to-find, seasonal, and/or fossorial taxa (e.g., by deploying pitfall traps, drift fence arrays, artificial refuges, etc., for an extended period of time or repeatedly throughout the year), should be priorities in the near future.…”

“…Angola's long civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 2002, effectively stifled biological exploration and discovery (for additional summary, see Marques et al 2018). Recent surveys, many by authors of this manuscript, have produced the only contemporary records of Angola's herpetofauna (e.g., Ceríaco et al 2014Ceríaco et al , 2016Conradie et al 2016;Heinicke et al 2017;Marques et al 2018;Baptista et al 2019;Butler et al 2019;Ernst et al 2020), including the only recent records of Breviceps in Angola. The nearest samples with confident identifications and associated genetic data are at least 600 km away (i.e., B. adspersus in Namibia and B. poweri in Zambia; Nielsen et al 2018).…”

“…More recent synopses of Angolan material have either referred historical material to B. cf. adspersus (Baptista et al 2019) or simply as B. sp. in recognition of the taxonomic uncertainties for these populations (Marques et al 2018;Ceríaco et al 2020).…”

Angolan Biodiversity: Towards a Modern Synthesis

“…358 species of freshwater fishes (of which 22% are endemic), and also presents a model of post-Cretaceous biogeography of Angola and the roles of regional tectonics and river capture on the speciation and distribution of the fish fauna. Baptista et al (2019), Chap. 12, cover the amphibian fauna, noting that the group clearly deserves further survey given that thus far only 111 species have been recorded (compared to 128 species for similar-sized but much drier and cooler South Africa).…”