Taking tadpole biology into the 21st century: a consensus paper from the First Tadpoles International Workshop

Although tadpoles are common, frequently encountered vertebrates, their natural history is poorly known. Despite the fact that Brazil harbors the highest anuran diversity in the world, with almost a thousand known species (Segalla et al., 2014), the larvae of many species remain undescribed. The problem is not unique to Brazil. At the turn of the century, approximately ⅔ of almost 3,300 anuran species with a larval stage lacked tadpole descriptions (McDiarmid & Altig, 1999). The proportion of neotropical anurans with free-swimming larvae that are not described is estimated to be around 40% (Provete et al., 2012). Fil: Rossa Feres, Denise de C.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasil Fil: Venesky, Matthew. Allegheny College; Estados Unidos Fil: Nomura, Fausto. Universidade Federal de Goias; Brasil Fil: Eterovick, Paula C.. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais; Brasil Fil: Vera Candioti, María Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Menin, Marcelo. Universidade Federal do Amazonas; Brasil Fil: Juncá, Flora A.. Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana; Brasil Fil: Schiesari, Luis C.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil Fil: Haddad, Celio F. B.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasil Fil: Garey, Michel V.. Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana; Brasil Fil: dos Anjos, Luciano A.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasil Fil: Wasserug, Richard. Dalhousie University Halifax; Canadá. University Of British Columbia; Canadá