Ashraf Jazayeri - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, ۶۱۳۵۷۸۳۱۵۱ Ahvaz, Iran
Fahimeh Saberi - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, ۶۱۳۵۷۸۳۱۵۱ Ahvaz, Iran
Tayebeh Mohammadi - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, ۶۱۳۵۷۸۳۱۵۱ Ahvaz, Iran

The Marsh frog, Pelophylax ridibundus (Pallas) is distributed in Central Europe from northeastern France, north to the southern shorelines of the Baltic Sea (and extreme southern Finland), south to northeastern Spain, northern Italy and the Balkans including eastern Greece, east to approximately ۸۱° E in Asiatic Russia, and south to western Iran and Afghanistan. The present study has been conducted on populations of P. ridibundus in the northern, eastern and southern regions of the Shadegan Wetland of Khuzestan Province, Iran with the aim of examining some aspects of its morphology and karyotype. Frog specimens were collected from different portions of the Shadegan Wetland during spring and autumn ۲۰۱۶ and transferred to the laboratory. According to the morphological results, three color patterns are identified among the samples in terms of the morphology, morphometry and sex - according to the sex independency test. T-test results between males and females indicate a significant difference in all traits and the results of a T۲ Hotelling test show that there is sexual dimorphism between males and females. However, the results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) illustrate a separation between males of the northern region and the two other regions, and no differentiation between females in the eastern and southern regions of the wetland. The karyotype of the species in the wetland included ۲n = ۲۶, one pair of which had a sex chromosome.  

Marsh frog, morphology, population, sexual dimorphism