Alytidae

Alytidae
Temporal range: Late Jurassic to Recent[1]
Alytes obstetricans
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Suborder: Archaeobatrachia
Family: Alytidae
Fitzinger, 1843
Genera

Genus Alytes
Genus Discoglossus
Genus Latonia
   

Distribution of Discoglossidae (in black)
Synonyms

Discoglossidae Günther, 1859

The Alytidae are a family of primitive frogs.[2][3][4][5] Their common name is painted frogs[2] or midwife toads.[4] Most are endemic to Europe, but three species occur in northwest Africa, and a species formerly thought to be extinct is found in Israel.

This family is also known as Discoglossidae, but the older name Alytidae has priority and is now recognized by major reference works.[2][3][4][5] Some researchers, though, suggest that Alytes and Discoglossus are different enough to be treated as belonging to separate families, implying resurrection of the Discoglossidae.[2] The term "discoglossid" has also been used to refer to many primitive fossil frogs that share plesiomorphic (ancestral) similities to alytids, but that are probably not closely related.[6]

  1. ^ Foster, J. (2007). "Enneabatrachus hechti" Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press. p. 137.
  2. ^ a b c d Frost, Darrel R. (2014). "Alytidae Fitzinger, 1843". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Alytidae Fitzinger, 1843". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  4. ^ a b c "Alytidae". AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application]. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  5. ^ a b Blackburn, D.C.; Wake, D.B. (2011). "Class Amphibia Gray, 1825. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3148: 39–55. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3148.1.8.
  6. ^ Gao, Ke-Qin; Chen, Jianye (2017-03-14). "A New Crown-Group Frog (Amphibia: Anura) from the Early Cretaceous of Northeastern Inner Mongolia, China". American Museum Novitates (3876): 1–39. doi:10.1206/3876.1. ISSN 0003-0082.