Rhinophrynidae Günther, 1858

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Rhinophrynidae
1 species

Rhinophrynidae Günther, 1858, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1858: 348. Type genus: Rhinophrynus Duméril and Bibron, 1841.

Rhinophrynidae — Mivart, 1869, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1869: 286; Hoffmann, 1878, in Bronn (ed.), Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs, 6(2): 607; Walker, 1938, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 372: 10.

Rhinophrynida — Knauer, 1878, Naturgesch. Lurche: 108.

Rhinophryninae — Noble, 1931, Biol. Amph.: 500.

Common Names

Mexican Burrowing Toads (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 114).

Distribution

Mouth of the Río Balsas (Michoacán, Mexico) and the lower valley of the Rio Grande in southern Texas (USA) along the coastal plains of Mexico and Guatemala to northwestern Honduras, on the Caribbean versant, and through El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua to Costa Rica on the Pacific versant; also in the Río Grijalva Valley of Chiapas (Mexico).

Comment

Fouquette, 1969, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 78: 1–2, summarized the literature of this taxon. Lynch, 1973, in Vial (ed.), Evol. Biol. Anurans: 133–182, and Starrett, 1973, in Vial (ed.), Evol. Biol. Anurans: 252–272, presented evidence that this family is phylogenetically the sister-taxon of Pipidae. Báez and Púgener, 2003, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 139: 439–476, discussed the phylogenetic relations of the group, including relevant fossils, tying them most closely to Pipidae. 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: 119, confirmed Rhinophrynidae as the sister taxon of Pipidae. Vitt and Caldwell, 2009, Herpetology, 3rd Ed.: 440, provided a general taxonomic account and map as part of a much more general and extensive overview of amphibian biology. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, in their molecular study, confirmed the placement of Rhinophrynidae as the sister taxon of Pipidae. Blackburn and Wake, 2011, In Zhang (ed.), Zootaxa, 3148: 39–55, briefly reviewed the taxonomic history of this taxon. Vitt and Caldwell, 2014, Herpetology, 4th Ed., provided a summary of life history, diagnosis, and taxonomy. Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 458–460, provided an account that summarized the relevant literature for the USA population.

Contained taxa (1 sp.):

Rhinophrynus Duméril and Bibron, 1841 (1 sp.)

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