Archaeobatrachia Explained

Archaeobatrachia (Neo-Latin archaeo- ("old") + batrachia ("frog")) is a suborder of the order Anura containing various primitive frogs and toads. As the name suggests, these are the most primitive frogs. Many of the species (28 in total) show certain physiological characteristics which are not present in other frogs and toads, thus giving rise to this group. They are largely found in Eurasia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Borneo, and are characteristically small. In addition, the family Ascaphidae is found in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains of the United States, and is only represented by two species. The taxon is considered paraphyletic.

References

• Gissi . Carmela . San Mauro . Diego . Graziano . Pesole . Zardoya . Rafael . Mitochondrial phylogeny of Anura (Amphibia): A case study of congruent phylogenetic reconstruction using amino acid and nucleotide characters . 10.1016/j.gene.2005.07.034 . Gene . 366 . 228–237 . February 2006 . 16307849 . 2.
• Roelants . Kim . Archaeobatrachian paraphyly and pangaean diversification of crown-group frogs . Systematic Biology . 54 . 111–126 . February 2005 . Franky . Bossuyt . 10.1080/10635150590905894 . 15805014 . 1. free .
• San Mauro . Diego . Phylogenetic relationships of discoglossid frogs (Amphibia:Anura:Discoglossidae) based on complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear genes . 10.1016/j.gene.2004.10.001 . Gene . 343 . 357–366 . December 2004 . Mario . Garcia-Paris . Rafael . Zardoya . 15588590 . 2.
• San Mauro . Diego . Initial diversification of living amphibians predated the breakup of Pangaea . American Naturalist . 165 . 590–599 . May 2005 . Miguel . Vences . Marina . Alcobendas . Rafael . Zardoya . Axel . Meyer . 10.1086/429523 . 15795855 . 5 . 17021360 . 2006-03-27 .