LEPTODACTYLIDAE

'Leptodactylidae' are a diverse Family of frogs that probably diverged from other hyloids during the Cenozoic era, or possibly at the end of the Mesozoic. Major Caribbean and Central American frog faunas originated by ancient oceanic dispersal, Heinicke, M.P., W.E. Duellman & S.B. Hedges, , , Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 2007 There are 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 and has no morphological synapomorphies.^[1]
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. These foam nests are some of the most varied among frogs. When eggs hatch in nests on the forest floor, the tadpole-like stages 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.

Contents

Subfamilies

References

External links

Subfamilies

★ Ceratophryinae

★ Cycloramphinae

★ Eleutherodactylinae

★ Leptodactylinae

★ Telmatobiinae

References

1. AmphibiaWeb: Information on Amphibian Biology and Conservation

External links

★ 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