The high frequency of various kinds of phenotypic abnormalities in some local amphibian populations has long been a puzzle. In this paper, we report malformations in the populations of two species of frogs, Pelophylax saharicus and Discoglossus pictus, inhabiting water bodies created by an artificial dam in an area devoted to intensive agriculture in the northeastern part of Tunisia. More than 35% of recently metamorphosed and young froglets in P. saharicus, and 25% in D. pictus, display morphological abnormalities that can be distributed in 18 types involving limbs, spine, eyes, or skin. Although we did not investigate the cause of these malformations, the unusually high malformation rate (33.3%) in these populations, as compared to conspecific individuals from other, noncultivated areas, points to an environmental disturbance.
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1 December 2011
First Record of Morphological Abnormalities in Natural Populations of Two Amphibian Species in Tunisia
Jihène Ben Hassine,
Vivian de Buffrénil,
Saïd Nouira
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Journal of Herpetology
Vol. 45 • No. 4
December 2011
Vol. 45 • No. 4
December 2011