Ceratophryidae

Ceratophryidae
Temporal range: Miocene–Recent
Ceratophrys ornata
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Superfamily: Hyloidea
Family: Ceratophryidae
Tschudi, 1838
Genera

3 extant genera, see text.

The Ceratophryidae, also known as common horned frogs, are a family of frogs found in South America. It is a relatively small family with three extant genera and 12 species.[1][2][3] Despite the common name, not all species in the family have the horn-like projections at the eyes.[citation needed] They have a relatively large head with big mouth, and they are ambush predators able to consume large prey, including lizards, other frogs, and small mammals. They inhabit arid areas and are seasonal breeders, depositing many small eggs in aquatic habitats. Tadpoles are free-living and carnivorous (Ceratophrys and Lepidobatrachus) or grazers (Chacophrys).[4]

Some species (especially from the genera Ceratophrys and Lepidobatrachus) are popular in herpetoculture.[citation needed]

The oldest fossils of the family are known from the Miocene epoch. The fossil giant frog Beelzebufo from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar was formerly considered to belong to this family, but is now excluded, but is possibly closely related, alongside Baurubatrachus from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. Wawelia from the Miocene of Argentina is no longer considered closely related.[5]

  1. ^ Frost, Darrel R. (2014). "Ceratophryidae Tschudi, 1838". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  2. ^ "Ceratophryidae". AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application]. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. 2014. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Vitt, Laurie J. & Caldwell, Janalee P. (2014). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles (4th ed.). Academic Press. pp. 496–497.
  5. ^ Barcelos, Lucas Almeida; Almeida-Silva, Diego; Santos, Charles Morphy D.; Verdade, Vanessa Kruth (2021-10-18). "Phylogenetic analysis of Ceratophryidae (Anura: Hyloidea) including extant and extinct species". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 19 (20): 1449–1466. Bibcode:2021JSPal..19.1449B. doi:10.1080/14772019.2022.2050824. ISSN 1477-2019. S2CID 248653602.