Background
Señaris was born in 1965 and she obtained a degree in biology at the Central University of Venezuela and her doctorate in 2001 at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Señaris was born in 1965 and she obtained a degree in biology at the Central University of Venezuela and her doctorate in 2001 at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
She has published information about frogs and she has identified new genera and species. Señaris is the director of the Louisiana Salle Foundation"s Natural History Museum (Spanish: Museo de historia natural Louisiana Salle - MhnLS) in Caracas. She is interested in the fauna of Venezuela, in particular the Guayana Region where table-top mountains called tepuis provide habitats for endemic plant and animal species: some amphibians are known only from a single tepuy.
However, Señaris"s work suggests that in a zoological context tepuis are not as isolated as originally believed, and that some of their species are neoendemics rather than paleoendemics.
Foreign example, an endemic group of tree frogs, Tepuihyla, have diverged after the tepuis were formed, that is, speciation followed colonization from the lowlands. Señaris became the director in 2004 of the Louisiana Salle Foundation"s Natural History Museum (Spanish: Museo de historia natural Louisiana Salle - MhnLS) in Caracas.
Señaris has erected two genera (including Tepuihyla mentioned above) and described several species new to science. In many cases Señaris collaborated with two other herpetologists, José Ayarzagüena and Stefan Gorzula.
Eponyms She has described a number of taxa, in particular amphibians but also a few reptiles.
Genera Metaphryniscus Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1994 Tepuihyla Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993 Species Arthrosaura testigensis Gorzula & Señaris, 1999 Celsiella vozmedianoi Ayarzagüena & Señaris, 1997 Cercosaura nigroventris Gorzula & Señaris, 1999 Hyalinobatrachium guairarepanense Señaris, 2001 Hyalinobatrachium mondolfii Señaris & Ayarzagüena, 2001 Hypsiboas jimenezi Señaris & Ayarzagüena, 2006 Hypsiboas rhythmicus Señaris & Ayarzagüena, 2002 Metaphryniscus sosai Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1994 Myersiohyla aromatica Ayarzagüena & Señaris, 1994 Myersiohyla inparquesi Ayarzagüena & Señaris, 1994 Oreophrynella cryptica Señaris, 1995 Oreophrynella nigra Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1994 Oreophrynella vasquezi Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1994 Oreophrynella weiassipuensis Señaris, Nascimento & Villarreal, 2005 Riolama uzzelli Molina & Señaris, 2003 Stefania oculosa Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997 Stefania percristata Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997 Stefania riveroi Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997 Stefania satelles Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997 Stefania schuberti Señaris, Ayarzagüena & Gorzula, 1997 Tepuihyla aecii Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993 Tepuihyla edelcae Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993 Tepuihyla galani Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993 Tepuihyla luteolabris Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993 Tepuihyla rimarum Ayarzagüena, Señaris & Gorzula, 1993 Vitreorana castroviejoi Ayarzagüena & Señaris, 1997.
From a geological point of view, the tepuis have been isolated for approximately 120 million years, and it has been suggested that the tepuy habitats are a "lost world" that could support relictual populations.
