Leptodactylidae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Distribution of Leptodactylidae (in black)
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Leptodactylidae are a diverse Family of frogs in the suborder Neobatrachia. The family has roughly 50 genera, one of which is Eleutherodactylus, the largest vertebrate genus, with over 700 species. In total, there are approximately 1100 leptodactylid species, most of which are widely distributed throughout Central and South America. The family is often considered paraphyletic because all its members share a common ancestor but Leptodactylidae does not include all the descendants of that ancestor.
Several of the genera within the Leptodactylidae lay their eggs in foam nests. These can be in crevices, on the surface of water, or on forest floors. The foam nests are some of the most varied within frogs. When some eggs from nests on the forest floor hatch, the tadpoles will remain within the nest, without eating, until metamorphosis.
The Leptodactylids are well represented in the fossil record, and one specimen from the genus: Eleutherodactylus was wholly preserved in amber 37 million years ago.
This family has no known morphological synapomorphies.
[edit] Subfamilies
[edit] External links and references
- Leptodactylidae, from the Tree of Life Web Project
- Leptodactylidae taxonomy, from the NCBI taxonomy browser
- Leptodacylidae classification, from Animal Diversity Web
- Leptodactylid description, from AmphibiaWeb
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