Third time’s the charm: The definitive rediscovery of Telmatobius halli Noble, 1938 (Anura, Telmatobiidae) at its historic type locality

Abstract

Telmatobius halli Noble, 1938 was the first representative of its genus to be described for Chile, but for 80 years no new individuals could be located due to the vagueness with which its type locality was described. The type series was collected by one of the members of the International High Altitude Expedition to Chile (IHAEC) that took place in 1935. Recently, three studies successively claimed to have rediscovered the type locality in different places. The third study proved, considering the chronicles of the IHAEC, that the actual locality is Miño, at the origin of the Loa River. In the contemporary herpetological literature, there are no records of Telmatobius from this locality. In this study, we provide additional documentary antecedents and graphic material that corroborate that the mentioned location is indeed the historic type locality of T. halli. Additionally, we describe the recently discovered Telmatobius population from Miño, whose external characteristics are consistent with the description of T. halli, and the environment it inhabits. Furthermore, we performed a molecular phylogenetic analysis that strongly suggests that T. halli (from Miño), T. dankoi and T. vilamensis, all known only from their type locality in Chile, are conspecific. Neither of the populations from the previously proposed rediscoveries grouped with the one from the genuine type locality. We discuss the implications that these findings have for the taxonomy, biogeography and conservation of the populations from the extreme south of the distribution of the genus in Chile.