Amphibian abnormalities: historical records of museum collection in Tucuman province, Argentina

Abstract

We analyze patterns of abnormalities in anurans from Tucumán, Argentina, deposited in the Fundación Miguel Lillo collection. We examined 1651 specimens collected from 1940 to 2010. Overall abnormality prevalence was 4.4% for post-metamorphics; the most common types of abnormalities affected the hind limbs, and were reduction in the number of phalanges. Abnormality prevalence in this group did not vary by species or region, but did vary temporally over the 50 year dataset. Overall abnormality prevalence was higher for tadpoles (30%) and the most common type of abnormalities was the extraneous projections in marginal papillae of oral disc. In tadpoles, distribution of abnormalities types was not random; prevalence varied among species, stages and oral disc regions.