Species of this family are small, brightly colored, neotropical frogs. Dart-poison frogs derive their name from the brightly colored species in the group which sequester toxic skin alkaloids, obtained through the insects they eat. Three species (Phyllobates terribilis, Phyllobates aurotaenia, and Phyllobates bicolor) are known to being used for poisoning blow-gun darts for hunting animals in Colombia. The most toxic species of any frog is Phyllobates terribilis, which produces batrachotoxins and homobatrachoxins at a level approximately 20-fold that of other dart-poison frogs.
Dendrobatids have short but strong hind limbs and are agile jumpers and climbers. They are characterized by the presence of divided scutes (thick pads of skin) on the dorsal surface of their digits. These frogs are diurnal and lay eggs on land. Many dendrobatid species exhibit parental care, with the males or females (depending on the species) transporting their tadpoles on the back of the parent. In some species, each tadpole is placed in a separate treehole or other small water-containing enclosure, and females or both parents visit the tadpoles periodically, with the female depositing unfertilized eggs at each visit to feed the tadpole. Males are highly territorial, partaking in vocalization and wrestling competitions and display cephalic amplexus (grasping the female around the head during mating, unique among anurans).
This family has had several taxonomic revisions and examinations (e.g., Grant et al., 2006; Santos et al., 2010; Santos and Cannatella 2011; see Blackburn and Wake 2011 for a summary). Species from three former subfamilies (Allobatinae, Anomaloglossinae, and Aromobatinae) now form the family Aromobatidae.
News Highlight
October 30, 2017: Although many animals avoid toxic prey, some use the toxins of their prey to ward off predators. However, toxic animals risk self-poisoning unless they can resist their own toxins. Tarvin et al. (2017) found that in poison frogs the basis of self-resistance to the neurotoxin epibatidine is a single genetic change that evolved in three groups; nature hit upon the same solution repeatedly. This change occurs in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, the molecular target of epibatidine. It makes the receptor more resistant to epibatidine, but it inhibits normal function by decreasing sensitivity to acetylcholine. To cope with this acetylcholine issue, some poison frogs evolved additional mutations that compensate for the cost by modifying the molecule so that acetylcholine activation is normal, but the negative effect of epibatidine is still reduced. (DCC)May 8, 2017: Many amphibian species that are phenotypically indistinguishable are genetically very distinct, leading to the recognition of "cryptic" species. The reverse case, in which interspecific variation in traits such as color is high, relative to genetic divergence, is less common. Tarvin et al. (2017), in a study of the poison frog group Epipedobates, found that among species that are otherwise easily distinguishable by calls and coloration, genetic divergence is only 2 to 3%. Moreover, this rapid divergence resulted in two independent origins of colorful aposematic species. Probably no other group of frogs shows so rapid an origin of the aposematic phenotype.
Written by AmphibiaWeb
Relevant ReferenceBlackburn, D. C., and D. B. Wake. 2011. Class Amphibia Gray, 1825. Zhang, Z.-q. ed., Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. Zootaxa 3148: 3955.
Grant, T., D. R. Frost, J. P. Caldwell, R. Gagliardo, C. F. B. Haddad, P. J. R. Kok, D. B. Means, B. P. Noonan, W. E. Schargel, and W. C. Wheeler. 2006. Phylogenetic systematics of dart-poison frogs and their relatives (Amphibia: Athesphatanura: Dendrobatidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 299: 1262
Pough, F. H., R. M. Andrews, M. L. Crump, A. H. Savitzky, K. D. Wells, and M. C. Brandley. 2015. Herpetology. Fourth Edition. Massachusetts: Sinauer.
Santos, J.C. and Cannatella, D.C. 2011. Phenotypic integration emeges from aposematism and scale in poison frogs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 108, 61756180.
Santos JC, Coloma LA, Summers K, Caldwell JP, Ree R, Cannatella DC (2009) Amazonian Amphibian Diversity Is Primarily Derived from Late Miocene Andean Lineages. PLoS Biol 7(3): e1000056. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000056
Tarvin, R.D., Borghese, C.M., Sachs, W., Santos, J.C., Lu, Y., O'Connell, L.A., Cannatella, D.C., Harris, R.A., Zakon, H.H., (2017). "Interacting amino acid replacements allow poison frogs to evolve epibatidine resistance." Science 22 Sep 2017 : 1261-1266
Vitt, L. J., and J. P. Caldwell. 2013. Herpetology. An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles. Fourth Edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
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