genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
true frog
True frogs is the common name for the frog family (biology), family Ranidae. They have the widest distribution of any frog family. They are abundant throughout most of the world, occurring on all continents except Antarctica. The true frogs are p ...
s from
Borneo
Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...
. Its
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 are adapted to fast-flowing mountain streams and easily recognizable by their divided upper lip with ribs on the outside.Stuart (2008)
Taxonomy and systematics
Its closest living relative is apparently the
hole-in-the-head frog
The hole-in-the-head frog (''Huia cavitympanum'') is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is the only member of the genus ''Huia''.
It is found on the island of Borneo. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland fores ...
(''Huia cavitympanum''),
type species
In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...
of the highly
polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...
" wastebin genus" '' Huia''. ''Meristogenys'', having been proposed far more recently than ''Huia'', might be included in the latter on grounds of
phylogeny
A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...
, as most if not all
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
placed in the ''Huia'' seem to belong elsewhere. But a group of species traditionally placed in ''Huia'' as well as the genus '' Clinotarsus'' are very close relatives, and therefore a taxonomic revision of this group is probably better deferred until the relationships of all
taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...
involved have been properly assessed.Cai ''et al.'' (2007), Stuart (2008) ''Meristogenys'' on its own is a
monophyletic
In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria:
# the grouping contains its own most recent co ...
group.
Ecology
''Meristogenys'' are common frogs around the mountain streams of Borneo and among the commonest frogs in the mountainous regions of the island.
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 are specialized for living in strong currents and have a heavy body. The snout is broadly rounded with a relatively oral disk underneath it. The body is flat below and has a large sucker, covering a larger portion of the abdomen.
Description
The largest species is '' Meristogenys kinabaluensis''; males reach and females in snout–vent length. Adults of different species are usually morphologically similar and difficult identify to species, and even difficult to distinguish from other ranid frogs, notably '' Hylarana''. In contrast, and unusually, the tadpoles are easier to identify to species than the adults.
Species
There are 13 species:
Footnotes
References
* (2007): Paraphyly of Chinese ''Amolops'' (Anura, Ranidae) and phylogenetic position of the rare Chinese frog, ''Amolops tormotus''. ''
Zootaxa
''Zootaxa'' is a peer-reviewed scientific mega journal for animal taxonomists. It is published by Magnolia Press (Auckland, New Zealand). The journal was established by Zhi-Qiang Zhang in 2001 and new issues are published multiple times a week ...