Pelodytidae Temporal range: Early Eocene–recent, | |
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Pelodytes punctatus | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Anura |
Superfamily: | Pelobatoidea |
Family: | Pelodytidae Bonaparte, 1850 |
Type genus | |
Pelodytes Bonaparte, 1838 | |
Synonyms [2] | |
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Pelodytidae, also known as the parsley frogs, or rarely, mud divers, is a family of frogs. It contains a single extant genus, Pelodytes , [2] [3] [4] [5] and three genera only known from fossils. [1] [4] The extant species are found in southwestern Europe and the Caucasus. [2] [3] [5]
Most recent studies suggests that Pelodytidae belongs to a clade containing three other families: Pelobatidae, Scaphiopodidae, and Megophryidae. [4] [5] Its sister taxon is the clade Pelobatidae+Megophryidae, [2] [5] although older studies have suggested also other relationships. [2]
Modern pelodytids are moderately small frogs measuring 30–55 mm (1.2–2.2 in) in snout–vent length. The eyes have rounded but vertically oriented pupils. The finger and the toe tips are blunt to pointed. The tadpoles have keratinized mouthparts. The family is also characterized by a number of anatomical and sceletal features, [5] including the fusion of the tibiale and fibulare that have been used to include the fossil taxa Miopelodytes and Tephrodytes in this family. [4]
The Alytidae are a family of primitive frogs. Their common name is painted frogs or midwife toads. Most are endemic to Europe, but three species occur in northwest Africa, and a species formerly thought to be extinct is found in Israel.
Megophryidae, commonly known as goose frogs, is a large family of frogs native to the warm southeast of Asia, from the Himalayan foothills eastwards, south to Indonesia and the Greater Sunda Islands in Maritime Southeast Asia, and extending to the Philippines. Fossil remains are also known from North America. As of 2014 it encompasses 246 species of frogs divided between five genera. For lack of a better vernacular name, they are commonly called megophryids.
The European spadefoot toads are a family of frogs, the Pelobatidae, with only one extant genus Pelobates, containing six species. They are native to Europe, the Mediterranean, northwestern Africa, and western Asia.
The parsley frogs or Pelodytidae are a family of order Anura. The family consists of a single genus, Pelodytes, which contains five species. These frogs can be found in south-western Europe and the Caucasus. The common name of "parsley frogs" comes from the common parsley frog which, because of its colouring, appears to be garnished with parsley.
The Rhinophrynidae are a family of frogs containing one extant genus, the monotypic Rhinophrynus, and a number of fossil genera. The family is sometimes known as the Mexican burrowing toads or simply burrowing toads.
The Arthroleptidae are a family of frogs found in sub-Saharan Africa. This group includes African treefrogs in the genus Leptopelis along with the terrestrial breeding squeakers Arthroleptis, and several genera restricted to the Guinean forests of central and west Africa, such as the hairy frog (Trichobatrachus).
Eastern spadefoot toads comprise a genus of the family Megophryidae in the order Anura, and are found in southern China, northeast India, southeast Asia, and islands of the Sunda Shelf as well as the Philippines. They are characterized by a stocky body with slender, short hindlimbs. In identifying species, iris colour is a valuable diagnostic morphological characteristic ; the iris has uniform colour in some species, whereas in other species the upper half is coloured and the lower half is dark.
The Ceratophryidae, also known as common horned frogs, are a family of frogs found in South America. It is a relatively small family with three extant genera and 12 species. Despite the common name, not all species in the family have the horn-like projections at the eyes. They have a relatively large head with big mouth, and they are ambush predators able to consume large prey, including lizards, other frogs, and small mammals. They inhabit arid areas and are seasonal breeders, depositing many small eggs in aquatic habitats. Tadpoles are free-living and carnivorous or grazers (Chacophrys).
The Cycloramphidae are a family of frogs endemic to southeastern Brazil. This family has seen large changes in its composition. Genera that have at some point been included in the Cycloramphidae are at present placed in the Alsodidae, Hylodidae, Leptodactylidae, and Rhinodermatidae. Of these, the Alsodidae and/or Hylodidae have also been considered as subfamilies of Cycloramphidae ; the Cycloramphidae, as recognized at present, would be similar to subfamily Cycloramphinae under such system.
The Petropedetidae are a family of frogs containing two genera and 11 species. They are found in sub-Saharan tropical Africa and are sometimes known under common name African torrent frogs.
The Pelobatoidea are a superfamily of frogs. They typically combine a toad-like body shape with a frog-like, pointed face. Phylogenetically they stand between primitive frogs on the one side and higher frogs on the other and are therefore – among other things by characteristics of bone construction – in the suborder Mesobatrachia.
Pristimantis is a very large genus of frogs distributed in the southern Caribbean islands and in Central and South America from Honduras to northern Argentina and southern Brazil. With 596 described species, the genus had more species than any other genus of vertebrate animals. Many of these species genus are endemic to the Northwestern Andean montane forests ecoregion in north-western South America.
Nyctibatrachidae is a small family of frogs found in the Western Ghats of India and in Sri Lanka. Their common name is robust frogs. Recognition of Nyctibatrachidae as a family is fairly recent. These frogs were previously placed in the broadly defined family Ranidae, which was more recently divided into three subfamilies: Lankanectinae, Nyctibatrachinae, and Astrobatrachinae.
Pipoidea are a clade of frogs, that contains the most recent common ancestor of living Pipidae and Rhinophrynidae as well as all its descendants. It is broadly equivalent to Xenoanura.
Craugastoridae, commonly known as fleshbelly frogs, is a family of New World direct-developing frogs. As delineated here, following the Amphibian Species of the World, it contains 129 species. They are found from the southern United States southwards to Central and South America.
Hylinae is a large subfamily of "tree frogs", family Hylidae.
The Alsodidae are a small family of frogs from South America between Patagonia and southern Brazil. It contains 30 species in three genera. This family, along with several other families, used to be included in the family Leptodactylidae. It was then a subfamily in the family Cycloramphidae, before being recognized as a family first in 2011.
The Leiuperinae are a subfamily of frogs in the family Leptodactylidae. Over 90 species are in five genera. The distribution of this subfamily is from southern Mexico to the Central America and much of South America.
Tephrodytes is an extinct genus of prehistoric frog known from Arikareean of Montana.
Pelodytes atlanticus, the Lusitanian parsley frog, is a species of frog in the family Pelodytidae, known as "parsley frogs" because of their green speckles. This species is only found in Portugal.