The Alsodidae are a small

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s from South America between

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

and southern Brazil. It contains 30 species in three genera. This family, along with several other families, used to be included in the family

Leptodactylidae The southern frogs form the Leptodactylidae, a name that comes from Greek meaning a bird or other animal having slender toes. They are a diverse Family (biology), family of frogs that most likely diverged from other hyloidea, hyloids during the C ...

. It was then a

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

in the family

Cycloramphidae The Cycloramphidae are a family of frogs endemic to southeastern Brazil. This family has seen large changes in its composition. Genera that have at some point been included in the Cycloramphidae are at present placed in the Alsodidae, Hylodidae ...

, before being recognized as a family first in 2011.

Genera

The family contains three genera: *'' Alsodes'' Bell, 1843 (19 species) *'' Eupsophus'' Fitzinger, 1843 (10 species) *'' Limnomedusa'' Fitzinger, 1843 (1 species) However, the placement of ''Limnomedusa'' is highly uncertain, and it might belong to the family

. In contrast, '' Alsodes''+'' Eupsophus'' group (''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'', after moving some species formerly included in the latter genus to other genera) forms a well-supported,

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group. These genera are Patagonian

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

s and represent the largest part of the amphibian diversity in that area. ''Eupsophus'' species are restricted to forested areas at southern latitudes, but some species of ''Alsodes'' reach the arid

Andean The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...

slopes in central Chile and Argentina. Eupsophus roseus 2

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2057374 Amphibian families