Santiago Castroviejo-Fisher

Research Associate

Email:
castroviejo.fisherSPAMFILTER@gmail.com
Phone:
+1 (212) 769-5734

Education

A close-up of one forelimb of a frog with pale green and white markings, its fingers wrapped around a thin green branch.
Two men seated indoors posing for the camera, with a laptop computer on a table nearby.
A tiny frog with long fingers, a white underside, white eyebrows, and mottled dark-color dorsal side perched on a green leaf.
A small frog with long wide fingers, yellow skin with extensive brown markings, and large protruding brown eyes, perched on a green leaf.
A small frog with translucent skin with areas of yellow, green, and brownish-pink, and a white line from its mouth down to its abdomen, on a green leaf.
A tiny frog with pale green skin, brown dots on the legs, a red and yellow line on the side, and yellow and red spots on the back, on a green leaf.
A close-up view of a lush green forest. Some tree trunks and branches have areas crusted with lichenlike growth.
A view of the underside of the foot of a small reptile, its toes spread wide to show a gill-like surface on the underside of each of its five toes.
A narrow calm river with lush green vegetation along its shores, and a small mountain in the distant background.
A small brown frog with a pointed snout and thin forelimbs, its skin speckled with lighter brown, perched on a brown leaf.
A photo of a man comically dangling a scorpion by its tail above his open mouth.
A pale green frog with a white underside and large pale eyes, clinging to a thin green branch.
A close-up of a man's head with a camera strap around his neck.
A side view of frog with red back and legs, yellow and black stripes on sides, and long fingers and toes, on a flat white surface
A long thin legless animal with smooth skin of mottled brown color, coiled and camouflaged on a brown leaf.
A small frog with a brown back, dark brown line from its mouth toits back, and pale belly, on a brown leaf.
A small reptile with grayish-black skin with pale belly and mottled with small white markings.
A small reptile with blue eyes and dark brown skin mottled with many small yellow spots.
A long thin legless animal with smooth, dark brown, shiny skin, coiled on a tan-colored leaf.
A small yellowish-tan colored frog with dark specks on its pale belly, clinging upright to a smooth green branch.
A small tan-colored frog with slightly darker markings, perched on a thin brown branch.
A tiny frog with mottled dark brown skin, its vocal sac inflated, sitting on a green leaf.
A frog with a flat head, and dark mottled brown skin, camouflaged against a dark brown leaf. A thin pale line runs from snout to tail.
Six people sitting on the damp brown soil of a campsite in a lush green forest.
Sixteen people, men, women, and children, standing posing for the camera in a lush green forest clearing in front of a stone wall
Two men in a lush green forest clearing posing for the camera while eating food from their two bowls.
A frog with bumpy skin and mottled brown, beige, and white markings perched on a green leaf.
A small frog with mottled brown skin, red eyes, and a yellow belly with brown spots, perched on a green leaf.
A tiny frog with pale green-brown mottled skin, a white underside and large yellow and black eyes, camouflaged against a pale mottled leaf.
A small frog with bumpy, mottled brown and black skin camouflaged against a dark brown leaf.
A close-up of the head and forelimbs of a green frog with a wide mouth and large white eyes and a white belly with pale green spots.
A small light-brown frog with two asymmetrical white markings on its back, with large eyes, a pale belly, and long fingers perched on a green leaf.
A toad with mottled brown skin and pointed protrusions on its head above its eyes, which looks like a leaf, camouflaged against a brown leaf.
A close-up of the front end of a snake with white and black stripes on its head and trachea area, and red scales on its body.
A small green glass frog marked with tiny white spots, perched on its gelatinous eggs on a green leaf.
A brown frog with red and white markings perched on a white tabletop.
Four people seated indoors posing for the camera.
A frog with vibrant green stripes the length of its body, and black markings perched on a brown surface of wood or leaf.
A frog with vibrant markings of iridescent yelloww and black on its body and orange and black on its head.
A lush green landscape with dense tree cover at the base of a grassy hill.
A pale green frog with large eyes and a wide mouth and tiny white bumps all over its body, perched on a bumpy white surface.
A light green glass frog with pale-color belly perched on a sheet of glass to show its translucent skin and some vascular structures in its belly.
A hill with lush green tree vegetation and wispy white cloud coverage touching the top of the hill.
Three men outdoors dressed in T-shirts posing for the camera with a cinderblock wall and two low buildings in the background.
A tiny frog with a wide mouth and long fingers and mottled green skin with pale speckled markings perched on a green surface.
A light green frog with white belly perched on a sheet of glass showing its translucent skin and some vascular structures in the belly
A tiny green frog marked with tiny dark spots all over its body, white skin on its side, and orange eyes, perched on a green leaf.
A small green frog marked with tiny white spots all over its back and head, with white skin along its side, perched on a green leaf.
A small brown frog with large light green irregular markings all over its body, long red fingers, and a reddish underbelly, perched on a green leaf.
A small frog with green skin on its back and the top of its limbs, with orange and black stripes on the underside of its belly.
A tiny brownish-green frog with specks of light green on its back, perched on moss.
A frog with black eyes, shiny orange skin on head, throat, and back, shiny green skin on legs and belly, and large black markings all over its body

Research Interests

As an evolutionary biologist and zoologist, my main interests are to study, describe, name, and understand the diversity of life with an emphasis on organisms and species. To study current diversity I mainly use a historical approach based on disciplines such as phylogenetic systematics and biogeography. Inferring evolutionary history allows me to understand things such as phenotypic evolution, the origin and causes of the distribution of organisms, and species boundaries. I have focused my research on amphibians and reptiles of tropical America and, to a lesser extent, Africa.

Current Research

Amazon Biodiversity

The Amazon Lowland rainforest, with more than 6 million Km2, harbors more than a quarter of Earth’s biodiversity. Nonetheless, its fauna and flora have been poorly studied even at the taxonomic level. Most studies in the region have been sporadic and based on few specimens from one or few localities. 

In this project we aim to answer a series of questions related to the amazing levels of biodiversity in the Amazon. How did this diversity originate? How much of this diversity is still unknown to science? How much diversity are we loosing with habitat destruction? How much diversity are we protecting by creating a new national park?

We are using amphibians as a study case to understand the diversity of the Amazon. We are applying a multidisciplinary approach that integrates classical disciplines such as taxonomy with recently developed techniques such as molecular phylogenetics, phylogeography and statistical bioacoustics. This multidisciplinary approach will allow us to identify areas of high species richness and endemism, evaluate the causes of the observed diversity and point out those linages that are evolutionarily unique. 

I am coordinating this project together with José Manuel Padial, Andrew J. Crawford, and Ignacio De la Riva. This project is based on a network of collaborators including scientists from: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru and Venezuela

Systematics and Evolution of Glassfrogs (Centrolenidae)

During my PhD at Uppsala University, Sweden I studied glassfrog systematics, biogeography and evolution. I am still active in this research line and work in close collaboration with other scientists. Together with Juan Manuel Guayasamín we are studying the historical biogeography of centrolenids using sequences from 10 markers with roughly 60% species coverage. I also collaborate with Marco Rada in his Ph.D. thesis on the phylogenetic relationships of glassfrogs.

Phenotypic Disparity and Concerted Evolution

Why is phenotypic variability unevenly distributed among clades? This is a long-standing question in evolutionary biology and we are using glassfrogs as a model to study this pattern.

Centrolenids are an excellent group to study the evolution of phenotypic disparity. The genus Hyalinobatrachium, 28 species, is one of the oldest clades of glassfrogs and is extremely monophormic showing little variation in its bauplan when compared to the remaining 11 genera. All Hyalinobatrachium species reproduce on the underside of leaves, i.e., males call from this side of leaves and females lay their egg clutches at or near calling sites. Thus, I hypothesize that once glassfrogs evolved the ability to reproduce on the underside of leaves, this new reproductive strategy imposed strong stabilizing selection on the morphology of these glassfrogs. Such stabilizing selection may constrain Hyalinobatrachium and other glassfrogs that have a similar reproduction strategy to be smaller, lighter, more transparent and with certain body proportions.

I am doing this project in collaboration with Dayanna L. Sánchez Martínez, Andrew J. Crawford, Juan Manuel Guayasamín,Alejandro González Voyer and Marco Rada.

Diversification

Why do some groups of organisms have substantially more species than others? To try to answer this central question in biology we study diversification rates (speciation – extinction) and its relationships to intrinsic (e.g., phenotypic characters) and extrinsic (e.g., biogeographical events) variables. Currently, I am collaborating with José Manuel Padial and Alejandro González Voyer in this topic. In a first work, we are investigating the main causes behind the major amphibian radiation: Terrarana.

Species Delimitation and Integrative Taxonomy

Species is one of the most complex and debated concepts in biology. However, it is a fundamental unit of comparison in science and it is widely used by stakeholders (conservation, biomedicine, pest control, etc.). Thus I think it is very important to develop solid theoretical and practical basis to delimit species. Together with José Manuel Padial and Ignacio De la Riva, I have explored the use of multiple and independent lines of evidence under the evolutionary species concept to establish species boundaries.

Publications

Please write an email for pdf files and/or reprints

2011

  • De la Riva I, Castroviejo-Fisher S, Chaparro JC, Boistel R & Padial JM. 2011. A new species of Atelopus (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Amazonian slopes of the Andes in south-eastern Peru. Salamandra 47, 161–168.
  • Castroviejo-Fisher S., Skoglund P., Valadez R., Vila C., Leonard J.A. 2011. Vanishing native American dog lineages. 2011.BMC Evolutionary Biology 11:73
  • Castroviejo-Fisher S., Moravec J., Aparicio J., Guerrero-Reinhard M., Calderón G. 2011. DNA taxonomy reveals two new species records of Hyalinobatrachium (Anura: Centrolenidae) for Bolivia. Zootaxa 2798, 64–68
  • Gonzalez-Voyer A., Padial J.M., Castroviejo-Fisher S., De la Riva I., Vila C. 2011. Correlates of species richness in the largest Neotropical amphibian radiation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02243.x

2009

  • Castroviejo-Fisher S, Guayasamin JM & Kok PJR. 2009. Species status of Centrolene lema Duellman and Señaris, 2003 (Amphibia: Centrolenidae) revealed by Integrative Taxonomy. Zootaxa 1680, 25–53.
  • *Castroviejo-Fisher S, *Guayasamin JM, Trueb L, Rada M & Vilà C. 2009. Phylogenetic systematics of Glassfrogs (Amphibia: Centrolenidae) and their sister taxon Allophryne ruthveni. Zootaxa 2100, 1–97. * = Equal contribution
  • Padial JM, Castroviejo-Fisher S, Köhler J, Vilá C, Chaparro JC & De la Riva I. 2009. Deciphering the products of evolution at the species level: the need for an integrative taxonomy. Zoologica Scripta 38, 431–447.
  • Castroviejo-Fisher S, Padial JM, Chaparro JC, Aguayo R & De la Riva I. 2009. A new species of Hyalinobatrachium (Anura: Centrolenidae) from the Amazonian slopes of the central Andes with comments on the diversity of the genus in the area.Zootaxa 2143, 24–44.
  • Padial JM, Castroviejo-Fisher S & De la Riva I. 2009. The phylogenetic relationships of Yunganastes revisited (Anura: Terrarana). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 52, 911–915

2008

  • Kok PJR & Castroviejo-Fisher S. 2008. Glassfrogs (Anura: Centrolenidae) of Kaieteur National Park, Guyana, with notes on the distribution and taxonomy of some species of the family in the Guiana Shield. Zootaxa 1680, 25–53.
  • Barrio-Amorós CL & Castroviejo-Fisher S. 2008. The taxonomic status of Rhaebo anderssoni (Melin, 1941) (Anura: Bufonidae). Salamandra 44, 59–67.
  • Guayasamin JM, Castroviejo-Fisher S, Ayarzagüena J, Trueb L & Vilà C. 2008. Phylogenetic relationships of glassfrogs (Centrolenidae) based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48, 574–595.
  • Guayasamin JM, Cisneros-Heredia DF & Castroviejo-Fisher S. 2008. Taxonomic identity of Cochranella petersi Goin, 1961 and Centrolenella ametarsia Flores,1987. Zootaxa 1815, 25–34.
  • v, Señaris JC, Ayarzagüena J & Vilà C. 2008. Resurrection of Hyalinobatrachium orocostale and notes on theHyalinobatrachium orientale species complex (Anura: Centrolenidae). Herpetologica 64, 472–484.
  • Barrio-Amorós CL & Castroviejo-Fisher S. 2008. Comments on the distribution, taxonomy and advertisement call of the Guyanan glass frog Hyalinobatrachium ignioculus (Anura: Centrolenidae). Salamandra 44, 235–240.

2007

  • Castroviejo-Fisher S, Ayarzagüena J & Vila C. 2007. A new species of Hyalinobatrachium (Centrolenidae: Anura) from Serranía de Perijá, Venezuela. Zootaxa 1441, 51–62.
  • Padial JM, v, Köhler J, Domic E & De la Riva I. 2007. Systematics of the Eleutherodactylus fraudator species group.Herpetological Monographs 21, 213–240.
  • Castroviejo-Fisher S, De la Riva I & Vilà C. 2007. Transparent frogs show potential of natural world. Nature 449, 972.

2003

  • Padial JM, Castroviejo-Fisher S, Merchan M, Cabot J & Castroviejo J. 2003. The Herpetological collection from Bolivia in the “Estación Biológica de Doñana” (Spain). Graellsia 59, 5–13.

2002

  • Padial JM, Castroviejo-Fisher S, Quintana AZ, Ávila E, Pérez-Marín J & Castroviejo J. 2002. Notes on the distribution of reptiles from NW Africa. Boletín de la Asociación Española de Herpetología 13, 2–5.