Abstract: Urbanization leads to globally decline of amphibian biodiversity. Amphibians change their phenotypic characteristics, especially morphological traits, to adapt to urbanization. To examine the effects of urbanization on the morphological traits of the gold-striped pond frog (Pelophylax plancyi) and rice-paddy frog (Fejervarya multistriata) in Shanghai, China, we collected 170 individuals of adult P. plancyi and 305 individuals of adult F. multistriata from 38 sampling sites along an urbanization gradient between April and August in 2020 and 2021. We mea-sured five morphological traits: snout-vent length, body mass, head width, forelimb length, and hindlimb length. The urbanization index of each sampling site was evaluated based on the area proportions of buildings, roads, and woodlands, to represent the urbanization level. The snout-vent length in both male and female P. plancyi was positively correlated with the urbanization index. The snout-vent length, head width, and hindlimb length in male F. multistriata, and body mass and hindlimb length in female F. multistriata were positively correlated with the urbanization index. Our results indicate that the responses of the morphological traits to urbanization were stronger in F. multistriata than P. plancyi in Shanghai.

Key words: urbanization, anuran, morphological variation, phenotypic characteristic, intraspecific differentiation.