A scientific team led by the Doñana Biological Station analysed the evolution of life cycles and reproductive modes of all the major amphibian clades: frogs, salamanders, and caecilians. The researchers have analysed data for more than 4000 amphibian species.

This study concluded that most species reproduce by alternative modes to ancestral aquatic reproduction. The evolution of terrestrial reproduction did not occur sequentially.

It has been a great winter for amphibians and it has coincided with the breeding period of most amphibian species. We have detected more than 7,000 individuals of 11 species found in Doñana, of which five are Iberian endemics.

Invasive species have major impacts on biodiversity and are one of the primary causes of amphibian decline and extinction. Unlike other top ant invaders that negatively affect larger fauna via chemical defensive compounds, the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) does not have a functional sting. Nonetheless, it deploys defensive compounds against competitors and adversaries. Levels of ant aggression toward 3 native terrestrial amphibians were estimated by challenging juveniles in field ant...

Chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is considered one of the most important causes for the decline of amphibian populations worldwide. Identifying potential biological reservoirs and characterizing the role they can play in pathogen maintenance is not only important from a scientific point of view, but also relevant from an applied perspective (e.g. disease control strategies), especially when worldwide distributed invasive species are involved.

extinctions. Amphibians are one of the most sensitive animal groups to climate change, currently undergoing a global decline. Predictive models for Europe and Iberian Peninsula forecast that the future impact of climate change on amphibians will depend on their capacity to alter their distributions by tracking climate warming. In the present study, the responses of Iberian amphibian species to recent climate change are explored by comparing amphibian distributions between two time periods...