The Arthroleptidae are a

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

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

s found in sub-Saharan Africa. This group includes African treefrogs in the genus ''

Leptopelis ''Leptopelis'' is a genus of frogs in the family Arthroleptidae. They are found throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding Madagascar. It is placed in monotypic subfamily Leptopelinae, although this subfamily is not always recognized. They have a ...

'' along with the terrestrial breeding squeakers '' Arthroleptis'', and several genera restricted to the Guinean forests of central and west Africa, such as the

hairy frog The hairy frog (''Trichobatrachus robustus'') also known as the horror frog or Wolverine frog, is a Central African species of frog in the family Arthroleptidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Trichobatrachus''. Its common name refers to th ...

''(Trichobatrachus)''.

Taxonomy

This family is the phylogenetic sister group of reed frogs, the

Hyperoliidae The Hyperoliidae, or sedge frogs and bush frogs, are a large family of small to medium-sized, brightly colored frogs which contains more than 250 species in 19 genera. Seventeen genera are native to sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, the monotypic ...

, which together form the lineage Laurentobatrachia, a name that commemorates work on African frogs by the Argentine herpetologist

Raymond Laurent Raymond Ferdinand Louis-Philippe Laurent (16 May 1917 – 3 February 2005) was a Belgian herpetologist, who specialized in African and South American amphibians and reptiles. He published more than 200 scientific articles and book chapters. Several ...

. This group is further nested within the Afrobatrachia, an ancient African endemic lineage that includes the

Brevicipitidae Brevicipitidae or rain frogs is a small family of frogs found in eastern and southern Africa. As of 2020 contains 37 species in 5 genera. eb application 2013. Berkeley, CaliforniaBrevicipitidae AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/. ...

and

Hemisotidae The shovelnose frogs are the species of frogs in the genus, ''Hemisus'', the only genus in the family Hemisotidae. They are found in tropical and subtropical sub-Saharan Africa. The shovelnose frogs are moderate-sized frogs, reaching a length o ...

. The Arthroleptidae are separated, based on phylogenetic analyses, into three deeply divergent and dissimilar subfamilies: Arthroleptinae, Astylosterninae, and Leptopelinae. Some consider these to be separate families, while others do not recognize any subfamilies, in particular due to uncertainty in the phylogenetic placement of ''Leptopelis'' and ''Scotobleps''. The three subfamilies consist of these genera:

References

" 'Horror frog' breaks own bones to produce claws." NewScientist.com, 2008

Further information

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q55455 Afrobatrachia Amphibian families Taxa named by St. George Jackson Mivart Afrotropical realm fauna