The Neobatrachia (

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

''neo-'' ("new") + ''batrachia'' ("frogs")) are a

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

of the Anura, the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

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 and

toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scient ...

s. This suborder is the most advanced and

apomorph In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have ...

ic of the three anuran suborders alive today, hence its name, which literally means "new frogs" (from the hellenic words ''neo'', meaning "new" and ''batrachia'', meaning "frogs"). It is also by far the largest of the three; its more than 5,000 different

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

make up over 96% of all living anurans. The differentiation between Archaeobatrachia, Mesobatrachia, and Neobatrachia is based primarily on

anatomic Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

differences, especially the

skeletal A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

structure, as well as several visible characteristics and behaviors.

Systematics

Separating the Anura into the Archaeo-, Meso- and Neobatrachia is somewhat controversial; as more research is done and more knowledge is gained, it is becoming even less clear, because many characteristics used for this differentiation apply to more than one group. Neobatrachia are usually sorted into five superfamilies, but this division is also controversial, as some families are placed into different superfamilies by different authors. In addition, several families have been revealed to be

paraphyletic In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...

and consequently divided to make them correspond to

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

s and thus be natural,

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

ary groups. This has approximately doubled the number of presently recognized neobatrachian families.

List of families

The clades and families currently accepted in the Neobatrachia are: * Superfamily

Heleophrynoidea Heleophrynidae is a family of frogs, commonly known as ghost frogs. They are thought to be the most basal group in the Neobatrachia. The family consists of two genera, '' Heleophryne'' and '' Hadromophryne'', with seven species. Ghost frogs liv ...

: ** Heleophrynidae – ghost frogs * Clade Australobatrachia: ** Calyptocephalellidae - Chilean toads ** Superfamily Myobatrachoidea ***

Limnodynastidae Limnodynastidae, commonly known as the Australian ground frogs, is a family of frogs found in Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. They were formerly considered a subfamily of the Myobatrachidae, the other large radiation of terrestria ...

– Australian ground frogs *** Myobatrachidae – Australian froglets * Superfamily Hyloidea: ** Allophrynidae - Tukeit hill frogs ** Amphignathodontidae – marsupial frogs (sometimes in Hemiphractidae) ** Alsodidae ** Batrachylidae ** Clade Brachycephaloidea *** Brachycephalidae – saddleback toads *** Ceuthomantidae – emerald-barred frogs ***

Craugastoridae Craugastoridae, commonly known as fleshbelly frogs, is a family of New World direct-developing frogs. As delineated here, following the Amphibian Species of the World, it contains 129 species. They are found from the southern United States south ...

Hedges, Duellmann & Heinicke, 2008 (formerly in Brachycephalidae) ***

Eleutherodactylidae The Eleutherodactylidae are a family of direct-developing frogs native to northern South America, the Caribbean, and southernmost North America. They are sometimes known under the common name rain frogs. Formerly the subfamily Eleutherodactylina ...

Lutz, 1954 (formerly in Brachycephalidae) ***

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 ...

Hedges, Duellmann & Heinicke, 2008 (some formerly in Brachycephalidae) **

Bufonidae {{Cat main, Toad This category contains both species commonly called toads, and the true toads from the family Bufonidae {{Cat main, Toad This category Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, cat ...

– true toads ** Centrolenidae – glass frogs ** Ceratophryidae – horned toads **

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, Hylodida ...

** Clade

Dendrobatoidea The Dendrobatoidea are a superfamily of frogs.Grant, T., Frost, D. R., Caldwell, J. P., Gagliardo, R., Haddad, C. F. B., Kok, P. J. R., Means, D. B., Noonan, B. P., Schargel, W. E., and Wheeler, W. C. (2006). Phylogenetic systematics of dart-poi ...

***

Aromobatidae The Aromobatidae are a family of frogs native to Central and South America. They are sometimes referred to as cryptic forest frogs or cryptic poison frogs. They are the sister taxon of the Dendrobatidae, the poison dart frogs, but are not as tox ...

– skunk frog (sometimes in Dendrobatidae) ***

Dendrobatidae Poison dart frog (also known as dart-poison frog, poison frog or formerly known as poison arrow frog) is the common name of a group of frogs in the family Dendrobatidae which are native to tropical Central and South America. These species are ...

– poison dart frogs **

Hemiphractidae The Hemiphractidae are a family of frogs from South and Central America. Previously, this group had been classified as a subfamily (Hemiphractinae) under family Hylidae. More recent research classifies these genera into their own family, or som ...

– marsupial frogs **

Hylidae Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as "tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic. Taxonomy and ...

– true

tree frog A tree frog (or treefrog) is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia have given rise to treefrogs, although they are not closely rela ...

s and relatives ** Hylodidae – giant Neotropical torrent frogs ** Leiuperidae (sometimes in Leptodactylidae) ** Leptodactylidae – southern frogs, tropical frogs ** Odontophrynidae ** Rhinodermatidae – Darwin's frogs ** Telmatobiidae – water frogs *Superfamily Sooglossoidea: ** Nasikabatrachidae – purple frogs ** Sooglossidae – Seychelles frogs *Superfamily

Ranoidea The Ranoidea are a superfamily of frogs in the order Anura. Members of this superfamily are characterised by having the pectoral girdle fused into a single complex unit, having no ribs, and using an axillary grip during amplexus. The larvae hav ...

: **

Microhylidae The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family of frogs. The 683 species are in 63 genera and 11 subfamilies, which is the largest number of genera of any frog family. Evolution A molecular phyl ...

– narrow-mouthed frogs **Clade Afrobatrachia: ***

Arthroleptidae The Arthroleptidae are a family of frogs found in sub-Saharan Africa. This group includes African treefrogs in the genus ''Leptopelis'' along with the terrestrial breeding squeakers '' Arthroleptis'', and several genera restricted to the Guine ...

– squeakers ***

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/. ...

– rain frogs ***

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 ...

– shovelnose frogs ***

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 ...

– sedge frogs, " bush frogs" **Clade Natatanura: ***

Ceratobatrachidae The Ceratobatrachidae are a family of frogs found in the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, the Philippines, Palau, Fiji, New Guinea, and the Admiralty, Bismarck, and Solomon Islands. Taxonomy Ceratobatrachidae was formerly treated as a subfamily (i.e., ...

*** Conrauidae ***

Dicroglossidae The frog family Dicroglossidae occurs in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa, with most genera and species being found in Asia. The common name of the family is fork-tongued frogs. The Dicroglossidae were previously considered to ...

– fork-tongued frogs *** Micrixalidae – dancing frogs ***

Mantellidae The Mantellidae are a family of the order Anura. These frogs are endemic to the islands of Madagascar and Mayotte. Systematics The family Mantellidae is composed of three extremely ecologically diverse groups of frogs, divided into three ...

– Malagasy frogs ***

Nyctibatrachidae Nyctibatrachidae is a small family of frogs found in the Western Ghats of India and in Sri Lanka. Their common name is robust frogs. Recognition of Nyctibatrachidae as a family is fairly recent. These frogs were earlier on placed in the broadl ...

– night frogs *** Odontobatrachidae ***

Petropedetidae The Petropedetidae are a family of frogs containing three genera and 12 species. They are found in sub-Saharan tropical Africa and are sometimes known under common name African torrent frogs. They are inhabitants of the splash-water zone of cle ...

– torrent frogs ***

Phrynobatrachidae ''Phrynobatrachus'' is a genus of Sub-Saharan frogs that form the monogeneric family Phrynobatrachidae. Their common name is puddle frogs, dwarf puddle frogs, African puddle frogs, or African river frogs. The common name, puddle frog, refers to ...

– puddle frogs ***

Ptychadenidae Ptychadenidae is a family of frogs commonly known as the grassland frogs. These frogs occur in Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. Thes ...

– grassland frogs ***

Pyxicephalidae The Pyxicephalidae are a family of frogs currently found in sub-Saharan Africa. However, in the Eocene, the taxon '' Thaumastosaurus'' lived in Europe. Classification The Pyxicephalidae contain two subfamilies, with a total of 12 genera. This fa ...

*** Ranidae – true frogs ***

Ranixalidae Ranixalidae is a family of frogs commonly known as the leaping frogs or Indian frogs. They 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 othe ...

– Indian frogs ***

Rhacophoridae The Rhacophoridae are a family of frogs that occur in tropical sub-Saharan Africa, South India and Sri Lanka, Japan, northeastern India to eastern China and Taiwan, south through the Philippines and Greater Sundas, and Sulawesi. They ar ...

– shrub frogs, " bush frogs", " moss frogs"

Systematics

List of families

References

Further reading