- Amphibian Species of the World on Twitter
- What is the right name?
- Running log of additions and changes, 2021
- Logs of changes and additions, 2014–2020
- How to cite
- How to use
- History of the project, 1980 to 2021
- The big changes in amphibian taxonomy (2006–2013): versions 5.6 and 6.0
- Scientific Nomenclature and Its Discontents
- Structure of the taxonomic records
- Contributors, 1985 edition
- Contributors, online edition
- Versions
- Museum abbreviations
- Links to useful amphibian systematic, conservation, collection management, informational, and/or regional sites
- Links to useful FREE library sites
- Copyright and terms of use
Brachycephaloidea Günther, 1858
Brachycephalina Günther, 1858, Arch. Naturgesch., 24: 321. Type genus: Brachycephalus Fitzinger, 1826. Not explicitly stated to be a family-group name, but given that it is the only collective immediately above the genus, I (DRF) interpret this as a family-group name.
Brachycephalina Günther, 1858, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1858: 344. Explicit Section, either in the family-group or above, but most likely above the family-group. See synonymy under Anura.
Brachycephalidae — Günther, 1858, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1858: 347; Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 197.
Brachycephalinae — Noble, 1931, Biol. Amph.: 507; Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 11.
Eleutherodactylinae Lutz, 1954, Mem. Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, 52: 157. Type genus: Eleutherodactylus Duméril and Bibron, 1841. Synonymy with Brachycephalina Günther, 1858, by Dubois, 2005, Alytes, 23: 11;Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 197.
Eleutherodactylini — Lynch, 1969, Final PhD Exam, Program: 3; Lynch, 1971, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 53: 142.
Eleutherodactylinae — Laurent, 1980 "1979", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 104: 418; Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 49.
Eleutherodactylidae — Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 47.
Craugastoridae Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 1. Type genus: Craugastor Cope, 1862, by original designation.
Craugastorinae — Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 565.
Strabomantidae Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 95. Type genus: Strabomantis Peters, 1863, by original designation. Synonymy by Padial, Grant, and Frost, 2014, Zootaxa, 3825: 52.
Strabomantinae — Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 103.
Brachycephaloidea — Padial, Grant, and Frost, 2014, Zootaxa, 3825: 49. Explicit superfamily to include Brachycephalidae, Craugastoridae, and Eleutherodactylidae.
Eleutherodactyloidia — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 273. Explicit epifamily, coined to be equivalent of the suprafamilial unranked taxon Terrarana Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 21.
English Names
None noted.
Distribution
Southern Arizona and central Texas (USA) south through Mexico and the Antilles to southern South America.
Comment
The explicit superfamily Brachycephaloidea was coined by Padial, Grant, and Frost, 2014, Zootaxa, 3825: 49, to include Brachycephalidae, Craugastoridae, and Eleutherodactylidae, families that cannot be diagnosed from each other on the basis of morphology. These authors also included Geobatrachus and Atopophrynus within the superfamily but could not assign them to family. On the basis of mtDNA genomes, but single terminals per family, Pie, Ströher, Bornschein, Ribeiro, Faircloth, and McCormack, 2017, Biochem. Syst. Ecol., 71: 26–31, suggested that the topology is Eleutherodactylus + (Craugastoridae + Brachycephalidae) rather than the previously thought Brachycephalidae + (Craugastoridae + Eleutherodactylidae). Heinicke, Lemmon, Lemmon, McGrath, and Hedges, 2017 "2018", Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 118: 145–155, provided a study of a very large number of nucleotides, but only 30 ingroup taxa analysed via ML and coalescent species tree methods that largely corroborates the study of Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 1–182. However, the low number of ingroup taxa compared to those included by Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, and Padial, Grant, and Frost, 2014, Zootaxa, 3825: 1–132, renders their conclusions problematic inasmuch as taxon sampling density is hugely important (see Wheeler, 1992, Extinct. Cladistic Analysis: 205–215, Hillis, 1996, Nature, 383: 383, Graybeal, 1998, Syst. Biol., 47: 9–17, Zwickl and Hillis, 2002, Syst. Biol., 51: 588–598, and Wheeler, 2007, in Hodkinson and Parnell (eds.), Reconstruct. Tree of Life).
Contained taxa (1183 sp.):
External links:
Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.
- For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
- For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
- To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank