Many amphibian populations are declining in a number of geographical locations throughout the world. In most cases, the cause or causes are unknown, but are assumed to result from man-made alterations in the environment. We review existing evidence concerning how environmental xenobiotics could contribute to declines of amphibian populations by impacting growth and development of the young. Thi...

36 Being an African, I have lived with uncertainty all my life. Our continent provides an ever-changing challenge. Being born an African destines you to remain an African. Some of us have attempted to challenge this; most have had only limited success in escaping Africa’s grasp. In Africa things are different; some say this is fun, others are upset by it. The threats that face our profession he...

Though a third of amphibian species worldwide are thought to be imperiled, existing assessments simply categorize extinction risk, providing little information on the rate of population losses. We conducted the first analysis of the rate of change in the probability that amphibians occupy ponds and other comparable habitat features across the United States. We found that overall occupancy by am...

Since amphibian declines were first proposed as a global phenomenon over a quarter century ago, the conservation community has made little progress in halting or reversing these trends. The early search for a "smoking gun" was replaced with the expectation that declines are caused by multiple drivers. While field observations and experiments have identified factors leading to increased local ex...

The amphibian decline and extinction crisis demands urgent action to prevent further large numbers of species extinctions. Lists of priority species for conservation, based on a combination of species' threat status and unique contribution to phylogenetic diversity, are one tool for the direction and catalyzation of conservation action. We describe the construction of a near-complete species-le...

Abstracts from the Amphibian Ark Biobanking Advisory Committee Workshop Towards a Biobanking Strategy for Amphibian Conservations from the Amphibian Ark Biobanking Advisory Committee Workshop Towards a Biobanking Strategy for Amphibian Conservation

ABSRTACT The Appalachian Mountains are arguably home to the highest degree of amphibian diversity in the world, particularly caudate (salamander) biodiversity. Despite the high degree of amphibian endemism in the Appalachians, several regions remain unsurveyed for amphibian species. In addition to this knowledge gap, we are in the midst of alarming amphibian biodiversity loss. Thus, it is of th...

background: chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate pesticide that elicits broad-spectrum insecticidal activity against a number of important arthropod pests. determining the insecticides’ toxicity to amphibians can give us a better understanding regarding the role of toxicants in amphibian declines. this information would be beneficial to assess their ecological relevance at environmental concentra...

the cement gland (cg) is a transient organ, found in most anuran embryos and early larvae and located normally on the front of the head. its sticky secretion allows newly hatched larvae to attach to the egg jelly or to another support later and remain hidden and stationary until feeding starts. our ultrastructural studies showed that prominence structure of the cg in some species exists, but is...