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

Pseudhymenochirus merlini Chabanaud, 1920

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pipidae > Subfamily: Dactylethrinae > Genus: Pseudhymenochirus > Species: Pseudhymenochirus merlini

Pseudhymenochirus merlini Chabanaud, 1920, Bull. Com. Études Hist. Scient. Afr. Occid. Franç., 1920: 494. Holotype: MNHNP 1920.186, according to Tinsley, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 426. Type locality: "Guinée Française: Dixine (près Conakry), ... capturé en pêchant au troubleau dans les trous qui abondent à quelque distance au N.-E. du village, entre la ligne du chemin de fer et la route de Conakry au Niger".

Hymenochirus (Pseudhymenochirus) merlini — Lamotte, 1963, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 25: 944-953.

Hymenochirus merlini — Sokol, 1977, J. Morphol., 154: 357.

Common Names

Merlin's Clawed Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 96).

Merlin's Dwarf Clawed Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 40).

Distribution

Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone

Comment

Sokol, 1977, J. Morphol., 154: 357, considered Pseudhymenochirus a primitive Hymenochirus, rather than an intermediate between Hymenochirus and Xenopus as proposed by Dunn, 1948, Am. Mus. Novit., 1384: 5. Geographically, Pseudhymenochirus merlini is separated by 2000 km from the westernmost Hymenochirus (in Nigeria) (Menzies, 1967, J. West Afr. Sci. Assoc., 12: 23). Not addressed by Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 288–290, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Mezzasalma, Glaw, Odierna, Petraccioli, and Guarino, 2015, Zool. Anz., 258: 47–53, reported on the karyology of Pseudhymenochirus merlini and Hymenochirus boettgeri as part of a general discussion of karyological evolution in the family. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 40–41, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Klinger-Strobel, Olsson, Glaw, and Müller, 2020, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 70: 435 – 446, reported on the development of the skeleton.

External links:

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To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
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