Based on morphological identification and a molecular analysis of specimens collected in the urban zone of Playa del Carmen in the state of Quintana Roo, we report the first record of the invasive greenhouse frog (Eleutherodactylus planirostris) in the Mexican Caribbean. The presence of E. planirostris in the Yucatán Peninsula suggests an urgent need for research to evaluate its invasion and ecological impacts.

Declines of amphibian populations have been well documented in the US, Canada, and Central America, but little is known regarding the status of amphibian populations in Mexico. In 2000, we surveyed 43 transects from 3 upland regions in Guerrero and Oaxaca, Mexico. We found 161 adult amphibians belonging to 39 species, representing only 19–48% of the anuran fauna known from these regions. We found one dead (Eleutherodactylus saltator) and one dying frog (Ptychohyla erythromma) from two different streams near Chilpancingo, Guerrero. Both frogs were infected with Batrachochytridium dendrobatidis, a pathogenic fungus involved in other declines of amphibian populations. We collected 368 tadpoles; 60 (19%) tadpoles from 9 different streams among the three regions were missing mouthparts, which is indicative of infection by chytrid fungus. We report additional data from the state of Chiapas, Mexico, that document declines, disease, and apparent extirpations from that region as well. Overall, we report 31 populations (representing 24 species) that appear to have been extirpated, including populations of as many as 11 endemic species that have been missing for 16–40 years and may be extinct.

Cerro Piedra Larga is an isolated mountain massif in eastern Oaxaca, lying just west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. No previous biological inventories had assessed this range, making even a preliminary assessment of interest. During several weeks of work in the higher portions of the mountain range, we assembled such preliminary inventories for birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and plants. Geographically, the affinities of the highland biota of Cerro Piedra Larga appear to be mixed between the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre del Sur, suggesting that the biota likely originated by colonization, rather than via historical connections.