Elevational surveys of Sulawesi herpetofauna 2: Mount Katopasa on the Eastern Peninsula of Sulawesi island, Indonesia
The unique geologic and biogeographic history of the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia has produced one of the world's most endemic biota, much of which is still unknown to science. The biogeography of the island is influenced both by its unique shape, a confluence of four peninsulas, as well as its extremely mountainous topography, and its upland ecosystems are poorly understood by science. Here, we report the second full-mountain checklist from a series of herpetological surveys of Sulawesi's Mountains conducted by an international team of researchers. During 3 weeks of work on Gunung Katopasa, a 2,825 m asl peak on Sulawesi's Eastern Peninsula in the province of Sulawesi Tengah, we recovered 45 species of reptiles and amphibians. Among these, we believe that at least eight represent undescribed species. Our efforts to survey Gunung Katopasa highlight that greater herpetological diversity will likely be discovered upon future assessments of species richness and abundance on the Eastern Peninsula of Sulawesi.
Authors
- Simon G. Scarpetta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0976-9337)
- K. Peterson
- Jeffrey H. Frederick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5014-2507)
- Umilaela Arifin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3638-6016)
- Syahfitri Anita (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4004-7906)
- Bryan H. Bach (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1420-6344)
- Isaac W. Krone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1167-5233)
- Jimmy A. McGuire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9562-5585)
- Evy Arida (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7604-390X)
- Collin Bos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1212-176X)
- Awal Riyanto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6887-9352)
- Wahyu Tri Laksono
- Amir Hamidy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6426-7458)
- Charlotte K. Jennings
- Su‐Fei Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5158-805X)
- Alexander L. Stubbs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1524-7287)
- Benjamin R. Karin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7936-7099)
- Sina Amini
Institutions
- QB3 (US)
- Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (US)
- University of Kentucky (US)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Indonesian Institute of Sciences (ID)
- University of Indonesia (ID)
- National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (ID)
- University of San Francisco (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PeerJ
- Published
- 2025-09-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.20024
- Primary Topic
- Amphibian and Reptile Biology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00