Only 1 out of every 5 amphibian type localities in Ecuador are in protected areas

In taxonomy, the location where specimens used to formally describe a new species are collected is called a type locality. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Add as preferred source Scientific Reports (2026).

Distribution of type localities according to their altitude, and proportion of species description according to the time interval of their description. Of the 505 locations in Ecuador where amphibian species were first described, only 21% (107) are within the National System of Protected Areas, while 27% are on agricultural land and an additional 7% are in urbanized areas.

The research team from the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja gathered information on the 695 amphibian species recorded in the country to reconstruct where and when they were described. Of these, 326 are known only from Ecuador.

Of the total, 151 have an extremely restricted distribution, and 69 are known to occur only in their type locality and surroundings. While the initial phase of species description, up to 1950, focused on accessible areas, researchers afterward expanded their sampling to higher altitudes and remote sites.

In Abra de Zamora and the city of Loja, within a 10-by-10-kilometer (6-by-6-mile) area, there is a concentration of type localities for 14 frog species, the highest number in the country. Of these, three species were collected in the 1930s by Ecuadorian naturalist Clodoveo Carrión.

The researchers also calculated that 34% of type localities in Ecuador are in areas where land use is changing drastically because of human activities such as agriculture, urbanization and deforestation.

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