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Rhinodermatidae
Rhinodermatidae, also known as Darwin's frogs, mouth-breeding frogs or mouth-brooding frogs, is a small family of frogs found in temperate forests of southern Chile and adjacent Argentina. They are a unique and evolutionary significant group of frogs, being the most basal extant members of the widespread frog superfamily Hyloidea and having branched from the rest during the Late Cretaceous, just a few million years prior to the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. The two genera, ''Rhinoderma'' and ''Insuetophrynus'', are thought to have diverged during the Paleocene. Despite their ancient origins, all three species in the family are now endangered due to habitat destruction, invasive species, and especially the spread of chytridomycosis in their native habitats, and one, the Chile Darwin's frog (''Rhinoderma rufum''), may already be extinct. Genera There are two genera recognised with three species: * '' Insuetophrynus'' Barrio, 1970 (monotypic In biology, a monotypic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insuetophrynus Acarpicus
''Insuetophrynus'' is a monotypic genus of frogs in the family Rhinodermatidae. The sole species is ''Insuetophrynus acarpicus'', also known as Barrio's frog. It is endemic to Chile and only known from few localities on the Valdivian Coast Range between Chanchán in the Los Ríos Region in the south and Queule (southernmost Araucanía Region) and Colequal Alto in the north; the fourth locality is Mehuín, which is the type locality. The altitudinal range is asl. Description Adult males measure and females in snout–vent length. The body is sturdy with muscular arms and legs (these frogs are powerful jumpers). The toes are partially webbed and thinner than the fingers which are short, thick, and unwebbed. The head is wider than long, with a broad, rounded snout. The eyes are large, and tympanum is visible but not large. The back is reddish brown with some whitish granulations. The hind legs have transverse, darker bands. The throat is pinkish yellow, and the stomach is pale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhinoderma
''Rhinoderma'', commonly known as Darwin's frogs or mouth-breeding frogs, is a genus of small frogs found in Chile and adjacent parts of Argentina. It has just two species, of which the Chile Darwin's frog (''R. rufum'') is highly endangered or may already be extinct. The better-known Darwin's frog (''R. darwinii'') is endangered. Both species are notable for their unusual breeding, with the tadpole A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the Larva, larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully Aquatic animal, aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial animal, ...s being raised inside the mouths of the males. The eggs are laid on the ground. The male frog guards the eggs for some time. When they are partially developed, he takes them up into his enlarged vocal sac. In the Chile Darwin's frog, the tadpoles remain in the vocal sac until their jaws and digestive organs develop. Then the male relea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insuetophrynus
''Insuetophrynus'' is a monotypic genus of frogs in the family Rhinodermatidae. The sole species is ''Insuetophrynus acarpicus'', also known as Barrio's frog. It is endemic to Chile and only known from few localities on the Valdivian Coast Range between Chanchán in the Los Ríos Region in the south and Queule (southernmost Araucanía Region) and Colequal Alto in the north; the fourth locality is Mehuín, which is the type locality. The altitudinal range is asl. Description Adult males measure and females in snout–vent length. The body is sturdy with muscular arms and legs (these frogs are powerful jumpers). The toes are partially webbed and thinner than the fingers which are short, thick, and unwebbed. The head is wider than long, with a broad, rounded snout. The eyes are large, and tympanum is visible but not large. The back is reddish brown with some whitish granulations. The hind legs have transverse, darker bands. The throat is pinkish yellow, and the stomach is pale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chile Darwin's Frog
The Chile Darwin's frog (''Rhinoderma rufum''), also called the northern Darwin's frog, is a possibly extinct frog, and one of only two members of the family Rhinodermatidae. It is endemic to central Chile. Description The Chile Darwin's frog has a snout to vent length of about . It has a fleshy proboscis, slender limbs and feet webbed between the first and second, and the second and third toes. The dorsal colour is variable but is usually some shade of brown or green, or a mixture of the two. The ventral surface is mottled in black and white. Biology The Chile Darwin's frog is diurnal and feeds on small insects and other invertebrates. The female lays a small clutch of eggs on moist ground. About a week later, when the embryos are beginning to move within the eggs, the male picks them up and stores them in his vocal sac, where they are kept until they have developed a functioning gut and keratinized jaws. The male then transports them to a suitable water body and releases them, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough skin texture due to wart-like parotoid glands tend to be called toads, but the distinction between frogs and toads is informal and purely cosmetic, not from taxonomy (biology), taxonomy or evolutionary history. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest and associated wetlands. They account for around 88% of extant amphibian species, and are one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is known from the Early Triassic of Madagascar (250Myr, million years ago), but molecular clock, molecular clock dating suggests their divergent evolution, divergence from other amphibians may exte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyloidea
Hyloidea is a superfamily of frogs.R.Alexander Pyron, John J.Wiens, 2011, ''A large-scale phylogeny of Amphibia including over 2800 species, and a revised classification of extant frogs, salamanders, and caecilians'' Hyloidea accounts for 54% of all living anuran species. The superfamily Hyloidea branched off from its closest relative, the Australobatrachia, during the mid-Cretaceous. The fossil evidence found during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event could not determine the effects upon the frogs, due to the lack of fossils. Increased forestation erupted after this extinction, possibly leading to more arboreal adaptations of these anurans to be best suited for this habitat. Taxonomy Hyloidea contains the following subgroups: * Allophrynidae – Tukeit Hill frogs (3 species) * Alsodidae – (26 species) *Batrachylidae – (14 species) *Bufonidae – true toads and harlequin frogs (700 species) *Brachycephaloidea **Brachycephalidae – saddleback toads, flea toads an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basal (phylogenetics)
In phylogenetics, basal is the direction of the ''base'' (or root) of a phylogenetic tree#Rooted tree, rooted phylogenetic tree or cladogram. The term may be more strictly applied only to nodes adjacent to the root, or more loosely applied to nodes regarded as being close to the root. Note that extant taxa that lie on branches connecting directly to the root are not more closely related to the root than any other extant taxa. While there must always be two or more equally "basal" clades sprouting from the root of every cladogram, those clades may differ widely in taxonomic rank, Phylogenetic diversity, species diversity, or both. If ''C'' is a basal clade within ''D'' that has the lowest rank of all basal clades within ''D'', ''C'' may be described as ''the'' basal taxon of that rank within ''D''. The concept of a 'key innovation' implies some degree of correlation between evolutionary innovation and cladogenesis, diversification. However, such a correlation does not make a given ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Aus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cretaceous–Paleogene Extinction Event
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, also known as the K–T extinction, was the extinction event, mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth approximately 66 million years ago. The event caused the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs. Most other tetrapods weighing more than also became extinct, with the exception of some ectothermic species such as sea turtles and crocodilians. It marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and with it the Mesozoic era, while heralding the beginning of the current era, the Cenozoic. In the geologic record, the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, K–Pg boundary or K–T boundary, which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks. The boundary clay shows unusually high levels of the metal iridium, which is more common in asteroids than in the Earth's crust. As originally proposed in 1980 by a team of scientists le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleocene
The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''palaiós'' meaning "old" and the Eocene Epoch (which succeeds the Paleocene), translating to "the old part of the Eocene". The epoch is bracketed by two major events in Earth's history. The K–Pg extinction event, brought on by an asteroid impact (Chicxulub impact) and possibly volcanism (Deccan Traps), marked the beginning of the Paleocene and killed off 75% of species, most famously the non-avian dinosaurs. The end of the epoch was marked by the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which was a major climatic event wherein about 2,500–4,500 gigatons of carbon were released into the atmosphere and ocean systems, causing a spike in global temperatures and ocean acidification. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habitat Destruction
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease in biodiversity and species numbers. Habitat destruction is in fact the leading cause of biodiversity loss and species extinction worldwide. Humans contribute to habitat destruction through the use of natural resources, agriculture, industrial production and urbanization (urban sprawl). Other activities include mining, logging and trawling. Environmental factors can contribute to habitat destruction more indirectly. Geological processes, climate change, introduction of invasive species, ecosystem nutrient depletion, water and noise pollution are some examples. Loss of habitat can be preceded by an initial habitat fragmentation. Fragmentation and loss of habitat have become one of the most important topics of research in ecology as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
