The European Journal of Taxonomy is thrilled to announce the publication of the journal’s 1000th new species in its 325th issue! On Friday June 2, 2017, EJT published Pristimantis boucephalus, or the Bigheaded Rubber Frog, a minute species described by Lehr et al. from the Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park, Peru.
Measuring less than 15 mm in length, this frog is characterised by its disproportionately large head. The tiny species of Amphibia was described by E. Lehr, J. Moravec, J.C. Cusi & V. Gvoždík within a wider study on the phylogenetic diversity of the Pristimantis genus occurring in Peru’s Cordillera Yanachaga.
This milestone represents an important achievement for EJT, which was founded upon the conviction that descriptive taxonomic research is essential to safeguard our planet’s biodiversity. As the world’s ecosystems transform at an unprecedented rate, the mission of cataloguing and understanding our flora and fauna has become critical in helping us to unlock the past, contemplate the future, and evaluate the challenges that face us today.
In this context, EJT was launched in 2011 by a consortium of Natural History institutions as a fully refereed, international, electronic journal with an Open Access policy. By coordinating institutional resources, EJT provides a unique publishing platform for its members’ shared goals: to encourage excellence and to facilitate the global exchange of knowledge.
With a total of nine member institutions, the EJT consortium is going from strength to strength. On top of 1000 species, EJT has also published 90 new genera and 8 new (sub-) families to date. In our mission to set a high standard in taxonomic publishing, we intend to build on this record while developing new ways for researchers to access the rich taxonomic data published by EJT. So here’s to the next 1000 species descriptions... and beyond!
To read the article of Lehr et al. on the EJT website: https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2017.325
