Alytidae

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alytidae
Discoglossus pictus

Discoglossus pictus

Systematics
Superclass : Jaw mouths (Gnathostomata)
Row : Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
without rank: Amphibians (Lissamphibia)
Order : Frog (anura)
Superfamily : Disc tongue i. w. S. (Discoglossoidea)
Family : Alytidae
Scientific name
Alytidae
Fitzinger , 1843

The Alytidae are a family of the frogs, in which the genera Alytes ( midwife toads ), Discoglossus ( actual disc beak ) and the recently separated genus Latonia ( Israeli disc beak ) are summarized. The family was proposed for the first time in the 19th century, but was then not common for a long time in the system of frogs and was only reintroduced in the modern sense in 2006. The Alytidae belong to the morphologically original frogs, formerly referred to as " Archaeobatrachia ". In its current definition, it is mainly based on molecular features ( phylogenomics , comparison of homologous DNA sequences).

features

Alytidae are small to medium-sized frogs with body lengths between 40 and 55 millimeters in Alytes and 60 to 75 millimeters in Discoglossus . In their general body shape there is little resemblance to each other, the Alytes species are more like toads with warty skin and relatively short hind legs with little jumping ability, while the Discoglossus species correspond more to the image of typical "frogs" . Your pupil is vertically slit-shaped ( Alytes ) or triangular to teardrop-shaped ( Discoglossus ). Similarities exist in features of the skeleton. The palatal bone (os palatinum) is absent in the skull and it has paired frontoparietal bones . The spine has eight presacral vertebrae that are flattened in cross section (“stegochordal”) with a convex front and concave rear (“opisthocoel”). Ribs are pronounced on the second to fourth vertebrae. In the shoulder girdle , the epicoracoids (skeletal elements behind the coracoid ) are only fused together at the front ("arciferal"), not completely fused ("firmisternal") as in the "higher" frogs. Most of these features are considered to be original features ( plesiomorphies ) within the frog auger.

The larvae ( tadpoles ) of the Alytidae correspond to "Type III" in the system of Grace L. Orton . That means: the jaws are keratinized and thus form a hard, beak-like structure, the breathing hole is in the middle on the stomach side (ventral).

distribution

Alytidae live in the European and North African Mediterranean area, with a clear western distribution center. The only East Mediterranean species is the relic species of Israeli disc beak. Only one species, the midwife toad , is also found further north, west to west central Europe. In the way of life there are again fundamental differences between the species. Discoglossus is predominantly amphibious and lives mainly in the banks of streams. Alytes is more terrestrial, but also usually does not move far from the larval water. They are nocturnal and spend the day in self-dug burrows.

Systematics and taxonomy

The family was delimited mainly according to molecular characteristics and has no clear morphological autapomorphies . In a morphological examination of the larvae they were grouped together, but could not be differentiated from the genus Bombina according to morphological characteristics. In the systems based on genetic traits, the Bombinatoridae family and the toad ( Bombina ) genus form the sister group of the Alytidae family.

After earlier investigations had already shown that the group of " Archaeobatrachia " is paraphyletic , the further relationship of the groups previously summarized here is now unclear.

In 2011, the Israeli disc beater , an endemic to Israel with the only known occurrence in the Hula Plain, was rediscovered after 60 years after it was considered to be exterminated after the Hula Lake was drained. Genetic studies showed that it is a sister group to the genus Discoglossus . The authors placed the species thereupon in the genus Latonia , which had been established earlier for fossil, extinct frogs; the Israeli species Latonia nigriventer is the only recent species.

The family name is based on Alytae by Leopold Fitzinger in 1843, changed by Günther to Alytidae in 1858. In the past the family was mostly called Discoglossidae Günther, 1858, but this name was published later and is therefore a more recent synonym . This family is controversial in its delimitation, some authors reserve it for the genus Discoglossus . The family Alytidae corresponds in its delimitation to the superfamily Discoglossoidea of ​​different authors, but others understand by this name the common taxon from Alytidae and Bombinatoridae. The name Colodactylidae suggested by Dubois (based on Colodactyli Tschudi, 1845) has not caught on .

The family, under this name and in this delimitation, is consistently accepted in the relevant more recent works and directories such as AmphibiaWeb and Amphibian Species of the World. The family name is now also used for the German species midwife toad instead of Discoglossidae.

Genera

The family Alytidae in its current delimitation comprises three genera:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Darrel R. Frost et al. (2006): The Amphibian Tree of Life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 297, 370 pages. on pages 184–185.
  2. ↑ Laurie J. Vitt, Janalee P. Caldwell: Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles. Academic Press, London etc., 2013. ISBN 978-0-12-386920-3 , at page 475.
  3. ↑ Alexander Haas (2003): Phylogeny of frogs as inferred from primarily larval characters (Amphibia: Anura). Cladistics 19: 23-89. doi: 10.1016 / S0748-3007 (03) 00006-9
  4. ↑ Kim Roelants & Franky Bossuyt (2005): Archaeobatrachian Paraphyly and Pangaean Diversification of Crown-Group Frogs. Systematic Biology 54 (1): 111-126. doi: 10.1080 / 10635150590905894
  5. ↑ Rebecca Biton, Eli Geffen, Miguel Vences, Orly Cohen, Salvador Bailon, Rivka Rabinovich, Yoram Malka, Talya Oron, Renaud Boiste, Vlad Brumfeld, Sarig Gafny (2013): The rediscovered Hula painted frog is a living fossil. Nature Communications 4: 1959. doi: 10.1038 / ncomms2959
  6. ↑ z. B. Jeroen Speybroeck, Wouter Beukema, Bobby Bok, Jan Van Der Voort: Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Britain and Europe. Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2016. ISBN 978-1-4729-2562-6
  7. ↑ Alytidae. AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. amphibiaweb.org , accessed November 16, 2018
  8. ↑ Alytidae. Darrel Frost and The American Museum of Natural History: Amphibian Species of the World 6.0, an Online Reference , accessed November 16, 2018.
  9. ↑ Miguel Vences (2007): The Amphibian Tree of Life: Ideology, Chaos or Biological Reality? Zeitschrift für Feldherpetologie 14: 153–162.