Pelodytidae

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Pelodytidae
Temporal range: Early Eocene–recent, 50–0  Ma [1]
Pelodytes punctatus side.jpg
Pelodytes punctatus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Superfamily: Pelobatoidea
Family: Pelodytidae
Bonaparte, 1850
Type genus
Pelodytes
Bonaparte, 1838
Synonyms [2]
  • Pelodytina Bonaparte, 1850
  • Pelodytides — Bruch, 1862
  • Pelodytidae — Cope, 1866
  • Pelodytinae — Fejérváry, 1923

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]

Contents

Genera

Evolutionary relationships

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]

Description

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alytidae</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megophryidae</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European spadefoot toad</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parsley frog</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhinophrynidae</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthroleptidae</span> Family of amphibians

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern spadefoot toad</span> Genus of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceratophryidae</span> Family of amphibians

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cycloramphidae</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petropedetidae</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pelobatoidea</span> Superfamily of amphibians

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.

<i>Pristimantis</i> Genus of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyctibatrachidae</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pipoidea</span> Clade of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craugastoridae</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hylinae</span> Subfamily of amphibians

Hylinae is a large subfamily of "tree frogs", family Hylidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alsodidae</span> Family of amphibians

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leiuperinae</span> Subfamily of amphibians

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.

<i>Pelodytes atlanticus</i> Species of amphibian

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.

References

  1. 1 2 "Pelodytidae Cope 1866". Paleobiology Database. Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Frost, Darrel R. (2020). "Pelodytidae Bonaparte, 1850". Amphibian Species of the World: An Online Reference. Version 6.1. American Museum of Natural History. doi:10.5531/db.vz.0001 . Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 "Pelodytidae". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Blackburn, D.C. & Wake, D.B. (2011). "Class Amphibia Gray, 1825. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3148: 39–55. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3148.1.8.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Vitt, Laurie J. & Caldwell, Janalee P. (2014). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles (4th ed.). Academic Press. pp. 478–479.
  6. Henrici, Amy C.; Báez, Ana M.; Grande, Lance (2013). "Aerugoamnis paulus , New Genus and New Species (Anura: Anomocoela): First Reported Anuran from the Early Eocene (Wasatchian) Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation, Wyoming". Annals of Carnegie Museum. 81 (4): 295–309. doi:10.2992/007.081.0402. ISSN   0097-4463.
  7. "†Miopelodytes Taylor 1941". Paleobiology Database. Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  8. "†Tephrodytes Henrici 1994". Paleobiology Database. Fossilworks. Retrieved 17 December 2021.