Pipidae

Pipidae
Temporal range: 145–0 Ma
Lower Cretaceous to Recent
African Dwarf Frog
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Subclass: Lissamphibia
Superorder: Batrachia
Order: Anura
Suborder: Mesobatrachia
Family: Pipidae
Distribution of Pipidae (in black).

The Pipidae are a family of primitive, tongueless frogs. The thirty species in the family Pipidae are found in tropical South America (genus Pipa) and sub-Saharan Africa (four other genera).

These frogs are exclusively aquatic and have numerous morphological modifications befitting their habitat. For example, the feet are completely webbed, the body is flattened, and a lateral line system is present.[1] In addition, pipids possess highly modified ears for producing and receiving sound underwater. They lack a tongue or vocal cords, instead having bony rods in the larynx that help produce sound. They range from 4 to 19 centimeters (1.6 to 7.5 in) in body length.[2]

The fossil record for pipids is relatively good with twelve extinct species known. Six of these are placed in the extant genus Xenopus, the remainder in extinct genera. These fossils are known from Africa, South America, and Middle East back to the Lower Cretaceous.[2]

Genera

Family Pipidae

References

  1. ^ "AmphibiaWeb: Pipidae". Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. http://amphibiaweb.org/lists/Pipidae.shtml. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
  2. ^ a b Zweifel, Richard G. (1998). Cogger, H.G. & Zweifel, R.G.. ed. Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 0-12-178560-2. 
  • Gissi, Carmela; Diego San Mauro, Graziano Pesole and Rafael Zardoya (February 2006). "Mitochondrial phylogeny of Anura (Amphibia): A case study of congruent phylogenetic reconstruction using amino acid and nucleotide characters". Gene 366 (2): 228–237. doi:10.1016/j.gene.2005.07.034. PMID 16307849. 
  • Roelants, Kim; Franky Bossuyt (February 2005). "Archaeobatrachian paraphyly and pangaean diversification of crown-group frogs". Systematic Biology 54 (1): 111–126. doi:10.1080/10635150590905894. PMID 15805014. 
  • San Mauro, Diego; Miguel Vences, Marina Alcobendas, Rafael Zardoya and Axel Meyer (May 2005). "Initial diversification of living amphibians predated the breakup of Pangaea". American Naturalist 165 (5): 590–599. doi:10.1086/429523. PMID 15795855. 

External links

Data related to Pipidae at Wikispecies
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pipidae Pipidae] at Wikimedia Commons
Extant anuran families by suborder
Archaeobatrachia
Mesobatrachia
Neobatrachia