Josefa Celsa Señaris (born 2 November 1965) is a Venezuelan herpetologist. She has published information about frogs and she has identified new genera and species. Señaris is the director of the La Salle Foundation's Natural History Museum (Spanish: Museo de historia natural La Salle - MhnLS) in Caracas.
Josefa Celsa Señaris | |
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Born | 2 November 1965 |
Nationality | Venezuelan |
Scientific career | |
Author abbrev. (zoology) | Señaris |
Life
editSeñaris was born in 1965 and she obtained a degree in biology at the Central University of Venezuela and her doctorate in 2001 at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.[1]
She is interested in the fauna of Venezuela, in particular the Guayana Region where table-top mountains called tepuis provide habitats for endemic plant and animal species: some amphibians are known only from a single tepuy. From a geological point of view, the tepuis have been isolated for approximately 120 million years,[2] and it has been suggested that the tepuy habitats are a "lost world" that could support relictual populations.[3] However, Señaris's work suggests that in a zoological context tepuis are not as isolated as originally believed, and that some of their species are neoendemics rather than paleoendemics. For example, an endemic group of tree frogs, Tepuihyla, have diverged after the tepuis were formed, that is, speciation followed colonization from the lowlands.[4]
Señaris became the director in 2004 of the La Salle Foundation's Natural History Museum (Spanish: Museo de historia natural La Salle - MhnLS) in Caracas.[1]
Señaris has erected two genera (including Tepuihyla mentioned above) and described several species new to science. In many cases Señaris collaborated with two other herpetologists, José Ayarzagüena and Stefan Gorzula.[5]
Honours
editEponyms
editIn recognition of her "contributions to the knowledge of centrolenid diversity and morphology" she has had a genus of glass frog, Celsiella, named after her nickname which is Celsi.[6]
Legacy
editShe has described a number of taxa, in particular amphibians[7] but also a few reptiles.[8]
Genera
edit- Metaphryniscus Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1994
- Tepuihyla Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993
Species
edit- Arthrosaura testigensis Gorzula & Señaris, 1999
- Celsiella vozmedianoi Ayarzagüena & Señaris, 1997
- Cercosaura nigroventris Gorzula & Señaris, 1999
- Hyalinobatrachium guairarepanense Señaris, 2001
- Hyalinobatrachium mondolfii Señaris & Ayarzagüena, 2001
- Hypsiboas jimenezi Señaris & Ayarzagüena, 2006
- Hypsiboas rhythmicus Señaris & Ayarzagüena, 2002
- Metaphryniscus sosai Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1994
- Myersiohyla aromatica Ayarzagüena & Señaris, 1994
- Myersiohyla inparquesi Ayarzagüena & Señaris, 1994
- Oreophrynella cryptica Señaris, 1995
- Oreophrynella nigra Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1994
- Oreophrynella vasquezi Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1994
- Oreophrynella weiassipuensis Señaris, Nascimento & Villarreal, 2005
- Riolama uzzelli Molina & Señaris, 2003
- Stefania oculosa Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997
- Stefania percristata Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997
- Stefania riveroi Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997
- Stefania satelles Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997
- Stefania schuberti Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997
- Tepuihyla aecii Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993
- Tepuihyla edelcae Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993
- Tepuihyla galani Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993
- Tepuihyla luteolabris Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993
- Tepuihyla rimarum Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993
- Vitreorana castroviejoi Ayarzagüena & Señaris, 1997
References
edit- ^ a b Bo Beolens; Michael Watkins; Michael Grayson (22 April 2013). The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Pelagic Publishing. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-907807-44-2.
- ^ Tepui. WWF.
- ^ The Lost World, Conan Doyle's novel featuring living dinosaurs, may have been inspired by these mountains.
- ^ Salerno, P. E.; Ron, S. R.; Señaris, J. C.; Rojas-Runjaic, F. J. M.; Noonan, B. P.; Cannatella, D. C. (2012). "Ancient tepui summits harbor young rather than old lineages of endemic frogs". Evolution. 66 (10): 3000–3013. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01666.x. PMID 23025594. S2CID 205783918.
- ^ José Ayarzagüena Sanz (1952–2011) was a Spanish herpetologist who specialised in Venezuelan crocodiles as well as frogs. Stefan Jan Filip Gorzula is a British-trained American. Bo Beolens; Michael Watkins; Michael Grayson (22 April 2013). The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Pelagic Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-907807-44-2.
- ^ Guayasamin, Juan Manuel; Castroviejo-Fisher, Santiago; Trueb, Linda; Ayarzagüena, José; Rada, Marco; Vilà, Carles (2009). "Phylogenetic systematics of glassfrogs (Amphibia: Centrolenidae) and their sister taxon Allophryne ruthveni". Zootaxa. 2100: 41. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2220.1.2.
- ^ Frost, Darrel R. (2015). "Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0". American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- ^ "The Reptile Database". Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- ^ Pebble toad's rock and roll life, Matt Walker, BBC, 15 October 2009, Retrieved 6 November 2015
External links
edit- Media related to Josefa Celsa Señaris (herpetologist) at Wikimedia Commons