Anura

Hochstetter's frog Leiopelma hochstetteri, copyright David M. Green.

Belongs within: Lepospondyli.
Contains: Alytoidea, Pipoidea, Pelobatoidea, Neobatrachia.

The Anura, frogs and toads, are a diverse group of terrestrial to aquatic vertebrates that lack an external tail at maturity and are often adapted for a hopping mode of locomotion. Larvae, if present, are aquatic and legless with a strong, finned tail.

Synapomorphies (from Frost et al. 2006): Prefrontal bone absent; prearticular bone absent; palatine absent; nine or fewer vertebrae; atlas with a single centrum; first spinal nerve exiting from spinal nerve canal via intervertebral foramen; caudal vertebral segments fused into urostyle; hindlimbs significantly longer than forelimbs, including elongation of ankle bones; radius and ulna, tibia and fibula fused; hyobranchial elements fused into hyoid plate; keratinous jaw sheaths and keratodonts present on larval mouthparts; larva with single median spiracle; skin with large subcutaneous lymph spaces; two m. protractor lentis attached to lens.

<==Anura (see below for synonymy)
    |--Bombinanura [Archaeobatrachia, Discoglossanura, Lalagobatrachia, Mesobatrachia, Ranoidei, Sokolanura] FG06
    |    |--Alytoidea FB17
    |    `--Pipanura FB17
    |         |--Pipoidea PW11
    |         `--Acosmanura FG06
    |              |  i. s.: Eurycephalella alcinae FB17
    |              |--Pelobatoidea EJK08
    |              `--Neobatrachia PW11
    `--Leiopelmatoidea FB17
         |--Ascaphus Stejneger 1899 FG06 [Ascaphidae PW11]
         |    |--A. montanus FG06
         |    `--A. truei FG06
         `--Leiopelmatidae [Amphicoela, Liopelmatina] FG06
             |--Vieraella herbstii Reig 1961 G88, M93
             |--Notobatrachus degiustoi Reig 1955 G88, M93
             `--Leiopelma Fitzinger 1861 [=Liopelma Günther 1869] FG06
                  |  i. s.: L. waitomoensis Worthy 1987 WH02
                  |--+--L. auroraensis Worthy 1987 WH02
                  |  |--L. hochstetteri Fitzinger 1861 WH02
                  |  `--L. markhami Worthy 1987 WH02
                  `--+--L. pakeka Bell, Daugherty & Hay 1998 BDH98
                     `--+--L. archeyi Turbott 1942 BDH98, WH02
                        `--L. hamiltoni McCulloch 1919 BDH98

Anura incertae sedis:
  Phractops F13
    |--P. brevipalmatus F13
    `--P. brevipes F13
  Callula baleata M89
  Notodelphys ovifera H04
  Liaobatrachus FB17
    |--L. grabaui ZBH03
    `--L. zhaoi FB17
  Enneabatrachus hechti R00
  Eobatrachus agilis Marsh 1887 (n. d.) R00
  Comobatrachus aenigmatis Hecht & Estes 1960 (n. d.) R00
  Paradiscoglossus americanus Estes & Sanchíz 1982 R00
  Theatonius lancensis Fox 1976 R00
  Gobiatidae R00
    |--Gobiatoides parvus Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
    `--Gobiates Špinar & Tatarinov 1986 R00
         |--G. asiaticus Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
         |--G. bogatchovi Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
         |--G. dzhyrakudukensis Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
         |--G. fritschi Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
         |--G. furcatus Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
         |--G. kermeentsavi Špinar & Tatarinov 1986 R00
         |--G. kizylkumensis Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
         |--G. leptocolaptus (Borsuk-Białynicka 1978) R00
         |--G. sosedkoi (Nessov 1981) [=Eopelobates sosedkoi] R00
         |--G. spinari Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
         `--G. tatarinovi Roček & Nessov 1993 R00
  Altanulia alifanovi Gubin 1993 R00
  Palaeophrynos gessneri Tschudi 1839 RR00
  Batrachus RR00
    |--B. lacustris Pomel 1853 RR00
    |--B. lemanensis Pomel 1853 RR00
    `--B. naiadum Pomel 1853 RR00
  Lutetiobatrachus gracilis RR00
  Liventsovkia jucunda RR00
  Ranavus scarabellii RR00

Anura [Acaudata, Anoura, Anuri, Anuria, Discoglossoidei, Ecaudata, Ecaudati, Heteromorpha, Leiopelmatanura, Miura, Pygomolgaei, Raniformia]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BDH98] Bell, B. D., C. H. Daugherty & J. M. Hay. 1998. Leiopelma pakeka, n. sp. (Anura: Leiopelmatidae), a cryptic species of frog from Maud Island, New Zealand, and a reassessment of the conservation status of L. hamiltoni from Stephens Island. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 28 (1): 39–54.

[EJK08] Evans, S. E., M. E. H. Jones & D. W. Krause. 2008. A giant frog with South American affinities from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 105 (8): 2951–2956.

[FB17] Feng, Y.-J., D. C. Blackburn, D. Liang, D. M. Hillis, D. B. Wake, D. C. Cannatella & P. Zhang. 2017. Phylogenomics reveals rapid, simultaneous diversification of three major clades of Gondwanan frogs at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 114 (29): E5864–E5870.

[FG06] Frost, D. R., T. Grant, J. Faivovich, R. H. Bain, A. Haas, C. F. B. Haddad, R. O. de Sá, A. Channing, M. Wilkinson, S. C. Donnellan, C. J. Raxworthy, J. A. Campbell, B. L. Blotto, P. Moler, R. C. Drewes, R. A. Nussbaum, J. D. Lynch, D. M. Green & W. C. Wheeler. 2006. The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 297: 1–370.

[F13] Fry, D. B. 1913. On a Varanus and a frog from Burnett River, Queensland, and a revision of the variations in Limnodynastes dorsalis, Gray. Records of the Australian Museum 10 (2): 17–34, pls 1–3.

[G88] Gray, J. 1988. Evolution of the freshwater ecosystem: the fossil record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 62: 1–214.

[H04] Haeckel, E. 1899–1904. Kunstformen der Natur. Bibliographisches Institut: Leipzig und Wien.

[M93] Milner, A. R. 1993. Amphibian-grade Tetrapoda. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 665–679. Chapman & Hall: London.

[M89] Modigliani, E. 1889. Materiali per la fauna erpetologica dell’isola Nias. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, Serie 2^a, 7: 113–124.

[PW11] Pyron, R. A., & J. J. Wiens. 2011. A large-scale phylogeny of Amphibia including over 2800 species, and a revised classification of extant frogs, salamanders, and caecilians. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 61: 543–583.

[R00] Roček, Z. 2000. Mesozoic anurans. In: Heatwole, H., & R. L. Carroll (eds) Amphibian Biology vol. 4. Palaeontology. The evolutionary history of amphibians pp. 1295–1331. Surrey Beatty & Sons.

[RR00] Roček, Z., & J.-C. Rage 2000. Tertiary Anura of Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, and Australia. In: Heatwole, H., & R. L. Carroll (eds) Amphibian Biology vol. 4. Palaeontology. The evolutionary history of amphibians pp. 1332–1387. Surrey Beatty & Sons.

[WH02] Worthy, T. H., & R. N. Holdaway. 2002. The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric life of New Zealand. Indiana University Press: Bloomington (Indiana).

[ZBH03] Zhou, Z., P. M. Barrett & J. Hilton. 2003. An exceptionally preserved Lower Cretaceous ecosystem. Nature 421: 807–814.