Pelodytoidea
| Pelodytoidea | ||||||||||||
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Eastern blade root ( Scaphiopus holbrookii ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pelodytoidea | ||||||||||||
| Bonaparte , 1850 |
The Pelodytoidea are a very primitive superfamily of the frogs (Anura), whose representatives often have a toad-like shape, but a frog-like, more or less pointed visual field. They share these characteristics with the species of the superfamily of toad frogs , to which they were also previously included.
distribution
The superfamily Pelodytoidea consists of two families, the American paddock toads and the mud divers , with a total of ten species in three genera. These occur on the one hand in North America , on the other hand in parts of Europe ( Iberian Peninsula and France ) and in the Caucasus .
features
The pupil, which is vertically slit in daylight, is noticeable. The tongue is thick, circular and almost completely fused with the floor of the mouth. The plump shape of the American paddock toads with a short snout that slopes strongly towards the front is very similar to the European garlic toads or the knife foot , which, however, belong to the superfamily of toad frogs . The Caucasian mud divers are slimmer. Just like the European paddock toads , the American paddock have the eponymous “digging shovels” on the underside of the hind feet - hardened, sharp-edged horn structures with which the animals can dig themselves backwards into the ground very quickly. The skin of the adult amphibians, which grow to about six to nine centimeters tall, is mostly smooth and moist, but covered with large glandular warts, which secrete a secretion that sometimes smells strongly of mold. When mating, the male clasps the female in the lumbar region, i.e. immediately in front of the hind legs ( inguinal amplexus ).
Taxonomy and systematics
Phylogenetically the Pelodytoidea between are toads and Scheibenzünglern one hand (i.e.,.. Archaeobatrachia ) and the "higher anurans" (i.e.,.. Neobatrachia as: Real toads , Laubfrösche , True frogs ) on the other hand driven and therefore - among others by characteristics of the bone structure - in the subordination mesobatrachia posed.
The sister taxon of the superfamily Pelodytoidea are the toad frogs (Pelobatoidea) with a little more than 140 species in 12 genera and two families. Their distribution extends over Europe, northwest Africa and the Middle East (family Pelobatidae ) and Southeast Asia (family Megophryidae ).
Genera and species
The superfamily Pelodytoidea consists of the American paddock toads (Scaphiopodidae) with two genera and the mud diver (Pelodytidae) with only one genus.
- Family Scaphiopodidae Cope, 1865 (American paddock toads)
- Genus Scaphiopus Holbrook, 1836
- Species Scaphiopus couchii Baird, 1854 - southern blade root
- Species Scaphiopus holbrookii (Harlan, 1835) - Eastern blade root
- Species Scaphiopus hurterii Strecker, 1910 Hurter's blade foot
- Genus Spea Cope, 1866
- Art Spea bombifrons (Cope, 1863) - lowland blade root
- Species Spea hammondii (Baird, 1859) - Western blade root
- Art Spea intermontana (Cope, 1883) - New Mexico blade root
- Species Spea multiplicata (Cope, 1863) - mountain blade foot
- Genus Scaphiopus Holbrook, 1836
- Family Pelodytidae Bonaparte, 1850 (mud diver)
- only genus Pelodytes Bonaparte, 1838 - mud diver
- Species Pelodytes ibericus Sánchez-Herraíz, Barbadillo-Escrivá, Machordom & Sanchíz, 2000 - Iberian mud diver
- Species Pelodytes punctatus (Daudin, 1802) - Western mud diver
- Species Pelodytes caucasicus Boulenger, 1896 - Caucasian mud diver
- only genus Pelodytes Bonaparte, 1838 - mud diver
literature
- Günther E. Freytag, Bernhard Grzimek, Oskar Kuhn & Erich Thenius (eds.): Lurche . In: Grzimeks Tierleben, Vol. 5: Fish 2, Lurche. Licensed edition in dtv, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-423-03204-9
Web links
- Pelodytoidea in the Taxonomicon, accessed June 10, 2016