Sooglossoidea Explained
Sooglossoidea is a superfamily of frogs. It contains only two highly divergent families consisting of three genera with two species each, one family being found in southwestern India and the other in the Seychelles.[1]
Taxonomy
The Sooglossoidea are an ancient division of the Neobatrachia; phylogenetic evidence indicates that they diverged from the rest of the Neobatrachia during the Early Cretaceous, about 125 million years ago, after colonizing Insular India from Africa. One family, the Nasikabatrachidae, remained in India; the other, Sooglossidae, was isolated on the Seychelles Microcontinent (which later turned into an island chain) after it split from India. Both families are thought to have diverged around the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.[2] [3]
Their exact phylogenetic relationships are disputed; previous studies found them to be the second-most basal member of the Neobatrachia, being sister to all other members of the group aside from Heleophrynidae, but more recent studies support them being significantly more derived and being the sister group to the Ranoidea.[4]
Sooglossoidea contains the following families:[5] [6]
Some studies suggest that the Late Cretaceous frog Indobatrachus, known from numerous fossil specimens from India, may also represent a member of the Sooglossoidea.
Notes and References
- Dubois . Alain . Amphibia Mundi. 1.1. An ergotaxonomy of recent amphibians . Alytes . 2005 . 23 . 1–2 . 1–24 . .
- Feng . Yan-Jie . Blackburn . David C. . Liang . Dan . Hillis . David M. . Wake . David B. . Cannatella . David C. . Zhang . Peng . 2017-07-18 . Phylogenomics reveals rapid, simultaneous diversification of three major clades of Gondwanan frogs at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . en . 114 . 29 . E5864–E5870 . 10.1073/pnas.1704632114 . 0027-8424 . 5530686 . 28673970. 2017PNAS..114E5864F . free .
- Biju . S. D. . Bossuyt, F. . 2003 . New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles . Nature . 425 . 6959 . 711–714 . 2003Natur.425..711B . 10.1038/nature02019 . 14562102 . 4425593.
- Alexander Pyron . R. . Wiens . John J. . 2011-11-01 . A large-scale phylogeny of Amphibia including over 2800 species, and a revised classification of extant frogs, salamanders, and caecilians . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . en . 61 . 2 . 543–583 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2011.06.012 . 21723399 . 1055-7903. free .
- Web site: Sooglossidae Noble, 1931 Amphibian Species of the World . 2022-09-13 . amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org.
- Web site: Nasikabatrachidae Biju and Bossuyt, 2003 Amphibian Species of the World . 2022-09-13 . amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org.
