Calyptocephalellidae Reig, 1960

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Calyptocephalellidae
5 species

Calyptocephalellinae Reig, 1960, Acta Trab. Primer Congr. Sudam. Zool., 4: 113. Type genus: Calyptocephalella Strand, 1928. (See comment.)

Calyptocephalinae Cei, 1962, Batr. Chile: 104. Type genus: Calyptocephalus Duméril and Bibron, 1841.

Calyptocephalellini — Lynch, 1978, Occas. Pap. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 72: 42.

Calyptocephalellidae — Frost, 2007, Amph. Spec. World, vers. 5.0, new rank (see comment); Bossuyt and Roelants, 2009, in Hedges and Kumar (eds.), Timetree of Life: 359; Vitt and Caldwell, 2009, Herpetology, 3rd Ed.: 446.

Common Names

Chilean Toads (Vitt and Caldwell, 2009, Herpetology, 3rd Ed.: 446).

Distribution

Mountains of central and southern Chile.

Comment

Lynch, 1978, Occas. Pap. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 72: 1-57, recognized three tribes within his Telmatobiinae: Calyptocephalellini (Caudiverbera and Telmatobufo), Batrachylini (Batrachyla and Thoropa), and Telmatobiini (Alsodes, Atelognathus, Batrachophrynus, Eupsophus, Hylorina, Insuetophrynus, Limnomedusa, Somuncuria, and Telmatobius); he also discussed the phylogenetic relationships of the genera. Burton, 1998, Am. Mus. Novit., 3229: 1–13, transferred Batrachophrynus from Telmatobiini to Calyptocephalellini (a possibility discussed by Lynch, 1978, Occas. Pap. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 72: 1–57); he also implied (p. 2) that Calyptocephalellini was more closely related to Heleophrynidae than to other leptodactylids. Cei, 1970, Acta Zool. Lilloana, 27: 181–192, suggested that Calyptocephalellini was phylogenetically distant from the remaining members of Telmatobiinae as delimited by Lynch. Formas and Espinoza, 1975, Herpetologica, 31: 429–432, suggested karylogical evidence for a close relationship of Telmatobufo and Caudiverbera (members of Calyptocephalellinae of other authors). San Mauro, Vences, Alcobendas, Zardoya, and Meyer, 2005, Am. Nat., 165: 590–595, and Wiens, Fetzner, Parkinson, and Reeder, 2005, Syst. Biol., 54: 719–748, provided preliminary evidence that suggested a special relationship of Australian myobatrachoids and South American Caudiverbera. 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: 193, demonstrated that Calyptocephalellidae (as Batrachophrynidae, their examplars behing Telmatobufo and Caudiverbera) is the sister taxon of Myobatrachoidea; they also noted that should Batrachophrynus (not studied by them) be shown to not be in this inclusive taxon, the name of the family would become Calyptocephalellidae. Aguilar and Pacheco, 2005, in Lavilla and De la Riva (eds.), Monogr. Herpetol., 7: 219–238, provided evidence from larval morphology that Batrachophrynus is not phylogenetically close to Caudiverbera; and Córdova and Descailleaux, 2005, in Lavilla and De la Riva (eds.), Monogr. Herpetol., 7: 187–217, provided karyotypic evidence in support of Batrachophrynus being imbedded within Telmatobius and on that basis I (DRF) have followed their evidence and transferred Batrachophrynus out of "Batrachophrynidae" (the taxon containing Telmatobufo and becoming Calyptocephalellidae) and into Ceratophryidae. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, confirmed the placement of Calyptocephalellidae as the sister taxon of Myobatrachidae + Limnodynastidae, as well as confirming the sister-taxon relationship of Calyptocephallela and Telmatobufo. Blackburn and Wake, 2011, In Zhang (ed.), Zootaxa, 3148: 39–55, briefly reviewed the nomenclatural history of this taxon. Vitt and Caldwell, 2014, Herpetology, 4th Ed., provided a summary of biology, diagnosis, and taxonomy. Blotto, Pereyra, Grant, and Faivovich, 2020, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 443: 38, discussed possible morphological synapomorphies for the group, particularly of hand and foot morphology. Barcelos and Santos, 2023, Paleodivers. Palaeoenvironm., 103: 341–405, reviewed the fossil localities and fossil history of this group in South America.

Contained taxa (5 sp.):

Calyptocephalella Strand, 1928 (1 sp.)
Telmatobufo Schmidt, 1952 (4 sp.)

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