Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Ceratophrys cornuta (Linnaeus, 1758)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ceratophryidae > Genus: Ceratophrys > Species: Ceratophrys cornuta

Rana cornuta Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., Ed. 10, 1: 212. Type(s): Including frog figured by Seba, 1734, Locuplet. Rer. Nat. Thesaur. Descript. Icon. Exp. Univ. Phys. Hist., 1: pl. 72, figs. 1-2. (See Seba, 1734, Locuplet. Rer. Nat. Thesaur. Descript. Icon. Exp. Univ. Phys. Hist., 1 for image of NHRM type.) Type locality: "Virginia"; in error.

Bufo cornutus — Laurenti, 1768, Spec. Med. Exhib. Synops. Rept.: 25.

Buffo cornuta — Lacépède, 1788, Hist. Nat. Quadrup. Ovip. Serpens, 16mo ed., 2: 367, 461; Lacépède, 1788, Hist. Nat. Quadrup. Ovip. Serpens, Quarto ed., 1: table after page 618, and referencing account starting on page 603.

Pipa cornata — Oken, 1816, Lehrb. Naturgesch., 3(2): 211.

Rana megastoma Spix, 1824, Animal. Nova Spec. Nov. Test. Ran. Brasil.: 27. Syntypes: Not specifically designated, although including animal figured in pl. 4, fig. 1 of the original and at least 2 specimens originally in ZSM; the remaining syntype, ZSM 1056/0 designated lectotype by Hoogmoed and Gruber, 1983, Spixiana, München, Suppl., 9: 358. See comments by Glaw and Franzen, 2006, Spixiana, München, 29: 175. Type locality: "juxta flumen Solimoens"; corrected to "Castro de Avelães, the present Amatura, on the right margin of the Solimões at 03° 29′ S, 68° 06′ W", Brazil, by Vanzolini, 1981, in Adler (ed.), Herpetol. Brazil Spix and Wagler: xxvi. Synonymy with Ceratophrys daudini Cuvier by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 440. Synonymy by Tschudi, 1838, Classif. Batr.: 82 (with Phrynoceros vaillanti); Peters, 1872, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1872: 204; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 224.

Ceratophrys Sebae Gray, 1825, Ann. Philos., London, Ser. 2, 10: 214. Substitute name for Rana cornuta Linnaeus, 1758.

Stombus cornutus — Gravenhorst, 1825, Isis von Oken, 1825: 921; Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 436.

Stombus megastomus — Gravenhorst, 1825, Isis von Oken, 1825: 921.

Ceratophris spixii Cuvier, 1829, Regne Animal., Ed. 2, 2: 106. Substitute name for Rana megastoma Spix.

Ceratophris daudini Cuvier, 1829, Regne Animal., Ed. 2, 2: 106. Holotype: Not stated, based on "Daudin, xxxviii" (not Daudin, 1802—DRF); MNHNP 692, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 26. Type localities: Not stated; given as Surinam, Guiana, by Gorham, 1966, Das Tierreich, 85: 37. Nomen nudum. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 224.

Ceratophrys megastoma — Wagler, 1830, Nat. Syst. Amph.: 204; Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 25.

Ceratophrys cornuta — Schlegel, 1837, Abbild. Neuer Unvollst. Amph., 1: 29.

Phrynoceros vaillanti Tschudi, 1838, Classif. Batr.: 44, 82. Types: Not designated, presumably MHNN. Type locality: "Surinam". Synonymy with Ceratophrys daudini by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 440. Synonymy by Peters, 1872, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1872: 204; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 224.

Ceratophrys cornuta — Peters, 1872, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1872: 204.

Ceratophrys testudo Andersson, 1945, Ark. Zool., 37A(2): 22. Holotype: NHRM 1912, according to Mercadal de Barrio, 1988, Amphibia-Reptilia, 9: 1. Type locality: "Rio Pastaza, Watershed", eastern Ecuador. Synonymy by Lynch, 1982, Syst. Zool., 31: 166-179; Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 4: 108.

Ceratophrys (Stombus) cornuta — Lynch, 1982, Syst. Zool., 31: 166-179.

Stombus cornutus — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 177.

Common Names

Horned Pac-Man Frog (Guayasamin, Cisneros-Heredia, McDiarmid, Peña, and Hutter, 2020, Diversity, 12 (222): 245; Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 4: xxx).

Sapo Pacman de Cuernos (Spanish: Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 4: xxx).

Horned Frog (Wood, 1863, Illust. Nat. Hist., 3: 160).

Horned Toad (Lacépède, 1802, Nat. Hist. Ovip. Quadruped. (Kerr transl.): 316).

Bell's Ceratophrys (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 77).

Amazonian Horned Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 78).

Surinam Horned Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 71).

Ecuador Horned Frog (Ceratophrys testudo [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 71).

Distribution

Amazonian Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and the Guianas, including northeastern Venezuela (Delta Amacura and Bolívar states).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela

Comment

See accounts by Rivero, 1961, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 126: 86; and Cochran and Goin, 1970, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 288: 366-368, Duellman, 1978, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 65: 85–86 (including a brief description of the tadpole), and Rodríguez and Duellman, 1994, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 22: 52–53, provided a brief account for the Iquitos region of northeastern Peru. Márquez, De la Riva, and Bosch, 1995, J. Zool., London, 237: 313–336, reported on vocalization in Bolivia. De la Riva, Köhler, Lötters, and Reichle, 2000, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 14: 39, provided the Bolivian citation. Lescure and Marty, 2000, Collect. Patrimoines Nat., Paris, 45: 200-201, provided a photo and brief account for French Guiana. Duellman, 2005, Cusco Amazonico: 263–265, provided an account (adult and larval morphology, description of the call, life history). Bernarde, Machado, and Turci, 2011, Biota Neotrop., 11: 117–144, reported specimens from Reserva Extrativista Riozinho da Liberdade, Acre, Brazil. See comment under Ceratophrys calcarata. See account for Suriname population by Ouboter and Jairam, 2012, Amph. Suriname: 84-87. See Cole, Townsend, Reynolds, MacCulloch, and Lathrop, 2013, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 125: 385, for brief account and records for Guyana. Faivovich, Nicoli, Blotto, Pereyra, Baldo, Barrionuevo, Fabrezi, Wild, and Haddad, 2014, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 9: 207–227, suggested that this species is the sister taxon of Ceratophrys calcarata. See Barrio-Amorós, Rojas-Runjaic, and Señaris Vasquez, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (1: e180): 28, for comments on range, taxonomy, and literature. For identification of larvae in central Amazonia, Brazil, see Hero, 1990, Amazoniana, 11: 201–262. See brief account for the Manu region, Peru, by Villacampa-Ortega, Serrano-Rojas, and Whitworth, 2017, Amph. Manu Learning Cent.: 52–53. Metcalf, Marsh, Torres Pacaya, Graham, and Gunnels, 2020, Herpetol. Notes, 13: 753–767, reported the species from the Santa Cruz Forest Reserve, Loreto, northeastern Peru. Rojas-Runjaic, Palomera García, and Blanco Márquez, 2021, Herpetol. Notes, 14: 461–464, provided records from northeastern Venezuela and discussed the range. Taucce, Costa-Campos, Carvalho, and Michalski, 2022, Eur. J. Taxon., 836: 96–130, reported on distribution, literature, and conservation status for Amapá, Brazil. Schiesari, Rossa-Feres, Menin, and Hödl, 2022, Zootaxa, 5223: 36–37, detailed larval morphology and natural history in central Amazonia, Brazil. Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 4: 104–109, provided an account, with photographs, which summarized identification, adult and larval morphology, systematics, natural history, distribution (including a dot map for Ecuador), conservation, and (on p. 391) vocalization. They also discussed the status of Ceratophrys testudo and its synonymy. Ceratophrys testudo had been resurrected from the synonymy of Ceratophrys cornuta by Mercadal de Barrio, 1988, Amphibia-Reptilia, 9: 1-6. Diagnostic features of nominal Ceratophrys testudo discussed by Perí, 1993, Alytes, 11: 107-116.

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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For additional information specific to Ecuador see FaunaWebEcuador: Anfibios del Ecuador