''Pristimantis'' is a very large

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 distributed in the southern Caribbean islands (

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc bet ...

) and in Central and South America from Honduras to northern Argentina and southern Brazil. With 596 described species (as of October 2022), the genus had more species than any other genus of vertebrate animals. Many of these species genus are

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 else ...

to the

Northwestern Andean montane forests The Northwestern Andean montane forests (NT0145) is an ecoregion on the Andes mountains in the west of Colombia and Ecuador. Both flora and fauna are highly diverse due to effect of ice ages when the warmer climate zones were separated and the cool ...

ecoregion in north-western South America.

Etymology

From the greek πριστις, serrated and μαντις, arboreal frog.

Taxonomy

Placement of this genus has varied greatly. ''Pristimantis'' was long included in the massive genus ''

Eleutherodactylus ''Eleutherodactylus'' is a genus of frogs in the family Eleutherodactylidae.Hedges, S. B., W. E. Duellman, and M. P. Heinicke . 2008. New World direct-developing frogs (Anura: Terrarana): molecular phylogeny, classification, biogeography, and c ...

'', and considered part of 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 of frogs that most likely diverged from other hyloids during the Cretaceous. The family has u ...

. Currently, the genus is placed placing in the

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 ...

Strabomantidae The Strabomantidae are a family of frogs native to South America. These frogs lack a free-living larval stage and hatch directly into miniature "froglets". This family includes ''Pristimantis'', the most speciose genus of any vertebrate. Systema ...

, subfamily Strabomantinae,

Species

As of October 2022, there are 592 species, but new ones continue to be described on a regular basis (e.g., ):

Notes

References

* P.J.R. Kok, Means, D.B., & Bossuyt, F. (2011). "A new highland species of ''Pristimantis'' Jimenez de la Espada, 1871 (Anura: Strabomantidae) from the Pantepui region, northern South America." ''Zootaxa'' 2934: 1–19. * T. Orrell. (custodian) (2012). ITIS Global: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (version April 2011). In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 25 June 2012 (Bisby F., Roskov Y., Culham A., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L., Bailly N., Kirk P., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., eds). Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/col/. Species 2000: Reading, UK. {{Taxonbar, from=Q53621 Strabomantidae Amphibian genera Amphibians of South America Amphibians of Central America Amphibians described in 1870 Taxa named by Marcos Jiménez de la Espada