Alsodidae Explained

The Alsodidae are a small family of frogs from South America between Patagonia and southern Brazil. It contains 30 species in three genera.^{[1] [2]} This family, along with several other families, used to be included in the family Leptodactylidae.^[3] It was then a subfamily in the family Cycloramphidae, before being recognized as a family first in 2011.^[4]

Genera

The family contains three genera:^{[1] [2]}

• 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 Cycloramphidae.^[1] In contrast, Alsodes+Eupsophus group (sensu stricto, after moving some species formerly included in the latter genus to other genera) forms a well-supported, monophyletic group. These genera are Patagonian endemics 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 slopes in central Chile and Argentina.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Alsodidae Mivart, 1869 . Frost, Darrel R. . 2016 . Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0 . American Museum of Natural History . 25 April 2016.
2. Web site: Alsodidae . 2016 . AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application] . Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb . 25 April 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141009113950/http://amphibiaweb.org/lists/Alsodidae.shtml . 9 October 2014 . dead .
3. Blackburn, D.C. . Wake, D.B. . Class Amphibia Gray, 1825. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness . Zootaxa . 3148 . 2011 . 39–55 .
4. Pyron . A. R. . Wiens . J. J. . 10.1016/j.ympev.2011.06.012 . A large-scale phylogeny of Amphibia including over 2800 species, and a revised classification of extant frogs, salamanders, and caecilians . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 61 . 2 . 543–583 . 2011 . 21723399. free .
5. 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2012.00417.x. Phylogenetic relationships of a Patagonian frog radiation, the Alsodes + Eupsophus clade (Anura: Alsodidae), with comments on the supposed paraphyly of Eupsophus. Cladistics. 29. 2. 113–131. 2013. Blotto . B. L. . Nuñez . J. J. . Basso . N. S. G. . Úbeda . C. A. . Wheeler . W. C. . Faivovich . J. N. . free . 11336/5605 . free .