The lab gathered this weekend for our annual beach BBQ at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne. It was a great opportunity to take a break from fieldwork, experiments, and writing to enjoy some time together outdoors.

We spent the day grilling, swimming, playing smash ball and catching up, with plenty of good food and even better company. These moments are a reminder that strong collaborations and friendships are just as important as the research we do.

Thanks to everyone who helped organize, bring food and cook—already looking forward to next year!

A new paper led by Pablo Venegas and collaborators, including Alessandro, has just been published in Zootaxa, announcing the discovery of Gastrotheca mittaliiti sp. nov. ​(inset photo by P. Venegas), a previously unknown species of marsupial frog from the subalpine páramo of the Amazonas department in northern Peru. The study also reports the first confirmed Peruvian record of Gastrotheca turnerorum, previously known only from southern Ecuador.
Marsupial frogs (genus Gastrotheca) are famous for their unique reproductive strategy: females carry developing eggs in a pouch on their back until the young emerge as tadpoles or fully formed froglets. In some direct-developing species, mothers even transfer nutrients to their developing embryos through their dorsal skin! 

Citation: Venegas, P. J., L. Y. Echevarría, L. A. García Ayachi, I. Wong, G. Chávez, A. García-Bravo, A. Catenazzi, and S. Castroviejo-Fisher. 2026. A new species of marsupial frog (Hemiphractidae: Gastrotheca) from the Andes of northern Peru and first country record of Gastrotheca turnerorum. Zootaxa 5777: 431–452. doi: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5777.3.2

Gustavo gave a talk at the XIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Herpetología in Costa Rica, presenting his doctoral research on bromeliad dwelling frogs and salamanders.

Lab collaborator Valia Herrera also attended the meeting, and presented a poster on genetic diversity and species delimitation in the Pristimantis danae group of southern Peru and northern Bolivia.

Cara presented part of her dissertation work with a poster titled Investigating thermal physiological traits of a nonnative amphibian, the Rio Cauca caecilian (Typhlonectes natas) at the annual FIU Biosymposium on February 7.

A new paper by Pablo Venegas and collaborators, including Alessandro, fills key gaps in what we know about the Condor Rain Frog, Pristimantis condor. The study documents new populations in Peru and reports the first description of the species’ advertisement call.
Surveys carried out from 2014–2023 revealed the species in the departments of Loreto and Amazonas. The Cordillera Escalera record pushes the known distribution about 250 km southeast of the nearest previously documented locality in Ecuador. The findings hint that P. condor may be more widespread across still poorly explored Andean foothill ranges. Every new locality and every new call helps. These baseline data improve our ability to survey remote regions, recognize hidden diversity, and plan conservation actions for Andean amphibians.
Males were typically encountered at night calling from shrubs half a meter to a meter above ground, often near white-sand habitats and blackwater streams, whereas females and juveniles were mostly found in leaf litter. Recordings from one male show that the call is a train of 17–20 notes lasting about three seconds, with a dominant frequency near 2.4 kHz and little change in frequency across the call. Additional recordings will be needed to capture the full range of variation. 

Citation: ​Venegas, P.J., L.A. García-Ayachi, S. Bullard, J.D. Valencia, E. Quispe, A. Catenazzi. 2026. Range extension and advertisement call description of Pristimantis condor (Lynch And Duellman, 1980) (Anura: Strabomantidae). Revista Latinoamericana De Herpetología 9: 11-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.22201/fc.25942158e.2026.1.1493

Jon presented this week (January 3-7) at the SICB Annual Meeting in Portland, OR. The title of his poster is Elucidating the Role of Shed Skins in the Persistence of Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola in Soil. Congratulations Jon!

On 16 December 2025, Alessandro Catenazzi joined the team of Geo — the acclaimed RAI 3 program dedicated to nature, science and the environment — as a featured guest alongside host Emanuele Biggi. Live on air, Alessandro shared insights from his extensive fieldwork in the Andes and Amazon, bringing viewers into the heart of contemporary scientific expeditions and biodiversity discovery. 
The conversation with Emanuele Biggi — naturalist, photographer and long-time Geo co-host — touched on the challenges and rewards of conducting research in rugged Andean landscapes, where new amphibian and reptile species continue to be documented. Biggi’s deep appreciation for small creatures and their ecological roles provided the perfect backdrop for Alessandro’s stories from the field. 
Alessandro described how herpetologists comb through high-elevation grasslands, cloud forests and remote valleys to catalogue life that has remained hidden from science. These expeditions not only enrich our understanding of biodiversity in some of the world’s most species-rich environments, but also highlight the urgency of conservation in the face of climate change and habitat loss. His anecdotes underscored the intimate connection between exploration and stewardship. 
Amphibians and reptiles — groups at the forefront of many recent discoveries — took center stage in the discussion. Alessandro explained why these vertebrates are both indicators of ecosystem health and subjects of intense taxonomic research. His lab’s work on Neotropical frogs, including the description of new species from the upper Amazon and Andean slopes, illustrates the hidden diversity that still awaits formal recognition. 
Throughout the live broadcast, Alessandro emphasized not just the thrill of discovery, but the broader implications of documenting life in a rapidly changing world. Viewers were reminded that each new species description helps build the scientific foundation needed to protect these unique organisms before they slip into extinction. The recording (in Italian) is available at ​https://www.raiplay.it/programmi/geo/​

A new study by Germán Chávez and Alessandro Catenazzi, published this month in Phyllomedusa, provides the first-ever record of Buenaventura's glassfrog (Nymphargus buenaventura) in Peru. This discovery significantly expands the known geographic distribution of this elusive species by 180 km southward from its previously recorded range in Ecuador.

The team identified a population of these translucent frogs at 1,800 m a.s.l. in the Agua Blanca Village, located in the Cordillera de Huancabamba of northwestern Peru. To confirm the identity of the specimens, the researchers combined morphological observations with molecular analyses of 16S rRNA sequences, which showed only a minimal 1.08% genetic divergence from populations in Ecuador.

Beyond the new locality, the paper offers exciting new insights into the species' natural history. For the first time, researchers recorded and quantitatively described the frog's advertisement call, which is a tonal, high-pitched "chirp" with a dominant frequency between 3.37 and 3.65 kHz. The team observed egg clutches containing 47 to 52 embryos, exceeding the maximum clutch size of 46 previously reported for the species in Ecuador. Males were found calling from leaves approximately 1.2–1.9 m above streams in secondary forest patches.

Despite the range extension, the authors note that very little is still known about the population sizes or trends for this species. Consequently, they recommend placing N. buenaventura in the Data Deficient category of the IUCN Red List until further research can better define its conservation status.

​Citation: Chávez, G. and A. Catenazzi. 2025. Notes on the distribution and advertisement call of Nymphargus buenaventura (Anura: Centrolenidae), with comments on its natural history and conservation. Phyllomedusa 24(2): 271–279.

Honor student Jesus Diaz presented a poster at the OURI Research Forum today! His poster's  title is Discovery and Characterization of Antimicrobial Peptides in the Skin Secretions of Frogs in the Pristimantis Genus. His research investigates the presence of these peptides in the largest genus of vertebrates, terrestrial-breeding frogs of the genus Pristimantis. He is working with skin transcriptomic datasets from P. toftae, as well as skin secretions of that same species and five additionally and closely related species. The event was hosted by the Department of Biological Sciences' Office of Undergraduate Research and Internships.