Published April 3, 2026
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Two new species of Nanorana Günther, 1896 (Anura, Dicroglossidae) from Yunnan, China
Authors/Creators
- 1. Kunming Natural History Museum of Zoology, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
- 2. Yunnan Wenshan National Nature Reserve Management and Protection Bureau, Wenshan, China
- 3. College of Continuing (Online) Education, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
- 4. Yunnan Wumengshan National Nature Reserve Management and Protection Bureau, Zhaotong, China
- 5. Wenshan City Management and Protection Sub-Bureau of Yunnan Wenshan National Nature Reserve, Wenshan, China
- 6. Daguan County Forestry and Grassland Bureau, Daguan, China
- 7. Southwest Survey and Planning Institute of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Kunming, China
- 8. Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
Description
Two new species of the Nanorana yunnanensis complex are described from southeastern and northeastern Yunnan Province, China, respectively, based on morphological and molecular evidence. The two new species can be distinguished from the three known species of this complex and each other by the difference in the skin texture, the visibility of the tympanum, the ventral coloration, and the distribution of the spines on the ventral surface of the head in adult males. Phylogenetically, the two new species formed two distinct clades in the N. yunnanensis complex and differ from other species of the complex and each other by 2.4–5.0% in the 16S gene sequences and 9.8–11.3% in the ND2 gene sequences. This study brings the total number of recognized species of the genus Nanorana to 36, of which 27 occur in China and 13 in Yunnan.
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