Brazil's Amazonian rainforest and its widespread cerrados (savanna-like habitats) establish it globally as one of the top "Megadiversity" countries. We will survey amphibians and reptiles in three poorly known cerrado areas, Serra do Cachimbo (southern Para and northern Mato Grosso), the Vale do Parana (Goias), and the Jalapao area (Tocantins). Most of the Cerrado has been converted to agriculture (soybean plantation) and pastureland, making it one of the most endangered habitats in the world. Preliminary work has revealed many undescribed species. We will obtain distributional, ecological, morphological, and reproductive data on all species in these areas; in addition, specimens and associated genetic resources (tissues) will be collected and deposited in Brazilian and American museums for future morphological and phylogenetic analyses. Our findings will contribute to development of conservation strategies for the Cerrado, and our collaboration with Brazilians will result in a wealth of scientific studies. Brazilian and American graduate students will participate in all phases of this work.
Using data that we will collect and phylogenetic analyses, we will examine history of distributions (phylogeography) and ecological traits (phyloecology) in lizards and frogs. These data will be combined with similar data that we have collected in the Amazon region during previous NSF-funded projects. Our studies will contribute new museum specimens that will be available to other scientists for future work, species descriptions, genetic resources, and ecological data and will allow us to further test the hypothesis that structure in present-day ecological communities has an historic origin.
