Does reproductive mode affect anomaly prevalence rates in anurans?

Several studies on anuran anomalies have suggested that legs are more prone to abnormalities due to their external development, which exposes them to various impacts. Anurans exhibit diverse reproductive modes, allowing for comparisons of anomaly prevalence between species with exotrophic or endotrophic development. We analysed the external morphology and radiographed osteology of post-metamorphic specimens from five anuran species to conduct such comparisons. The overall prevalence of anomalies was low, consistent with areas experiencing no exceptional impacts. However, exclusively examining fully metamorphosed specimens, primarily adults, may have underestimated these results. While the prevalence of hindlimb anomalies showed no significant difference between reproductive modes, total anomalies were significantly distinct between the two categories, with species with exotrophic, free-living tadpoles being more affected than those with endotrophic reproductive modes. These results suggest that reproductive mode could influence the prevalence rates of anomalies, with developmental stages in endotrophic modes occurring away from putative impacts in the aquatic environment.