List of Anuran families

Template:Short description Template:No footnotes This list of Anuran families shows all extant families of Anura. Anura is an order of animals in the class Amphibia that includes frogs and toads. More than 5,000 species are described in the order. The living anurans are typically divided into three suborders: Archaeobatrachia, Mesobatrachia, and Neobatrachia. This classification is based on such morphological features as the number of vertebrae, the structure of the pectoral girdle, and the morphology of tadpoles.

Taxonomy

The archaeobatrachians are the most primitive of frogs. These frogs have morphological characteristics which are found mostly in extinct frogs, and are absent in most of the modern frog species. Most of these characteristics are not common between all the families of Archaeobatrachia, or are not absent from all the modern species of frogs. However, all archaeobatrachians have free vertebrae, whereas all other species of frogs have their ribs fused to their vertebrae.

The Neobatrachia comprise the most modern species of frogs. Most of these frogs have morphological features which are more complex than those of the mesobatrachians and archaeobatrachians. The neobatrachians all have a palatine bone, which braces the upper jaw to the neurocranium. This is absent in all Archaeobatrachia and some Mesobatrachia. The third distal carpus is fused with the remaining carpal bones. The adductor longus muscle is present in the neobatrachians, but absent in the archaeobatrachians and some mesobatrachians. It is believed to have differentiated from pectineus muscle, and this differentiation has not occurred in the primitive frogs.

The Mesobatrachia are considered the evolutionary link between the Archaeobatrachia and the Neobatrachia. The families within the mesobatrachian suborder generally contain morphological features typical of both the other suborders. For example, the palatine bone is absent in all archaeobatrachians, and present in all neobatrachians. However, within the mesobatrachians families, it can be dependent on the species as to whether the palatine bone is present.

Due to the many morphological features which separate the frogs, many different systems are used for the classification of the anuran suborders. These different classification systems usually split the Mesobatrachia suborder.

Families

Archaeobatrachia - four families, seven genera, 27 species
Family	Genera	Common names	Example species	Example photo
Ascaphidae (Fejérváry, 1923)	1	Tailed frogs	Tailed frog (Ascaphus truei)	File:Tailed frog.gif
Bombinatoridae (Gray, 1825)	2	Fire-belly toads	European fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina)	File:Bombina bombina 1 (Marek Szczepanek).jpg
Alytidae (Fitzinger, 1843)	3	Painted frogs or disc-tongued frogs	Portuguese or Iberian painted frog (Discoglossus galganoi)	File:Discoglossus galganoi rechts.jpg
Leiopelmatidae (Mivart, 1869)	1	New Zealand primitive frogs	Hochstetters frog (Leiopelma hochstetteri)	File:Hochstetters Frog on Moss.jpg
Mesobatrachia - six families, 21 genera, 168 species
Family	Genera	Common names	Example species	Example photo
Megophryidae (Bonaparte, 1850)	12	Litter frogs or short-legged toads	Long-nosed horned frog (Megophrys nasuta)	File:Megophrys.nasuta.7035.jpg
Pelobatidae (Bonaparte, 1850)	1	European spadefoot toads	Common spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus)	File:Pelobates fuscus 2 (Marek Szczepanek).jpg
Pelodytidae (Bonaparte, 1850)	1	Parsley frogs	Common parsley frog (Pelodytes punctatus)	File:Pelodytes punctatus side.jpg
Pipidae (Gray, 1825)	4	Tongueless frogs or clawed frogs	African dwarf frog (Hymenochirus boettgeri)	File:Amplexus of ADF.jpg
Rhinophrynidae (Günther, 1859)	1	Mexican burrowing toad	Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis)	File:Rhinophrynus dorsalis.jpg
Scaphiopodidae (Cope, 1865)	2	American spadefoot toads	Western spadefoot toad (Spea hammondii)	File:Spea hammondii 1.jpg
Neobatrachia - 26 families, 351 genera, more than 5,000 species
Family	Genera	Common names	Example species	Example photo
Allophrynidae (Goin, Goin, and Zug, 1978)	1	Tukeit Hill frog	Tukeit Hill frog (Allophryne ruthveni)	-
Amphignathodontidae (Boulenger, 1882)	2	Marsupial frogs	Marsupial frog (Gastrotheca excubitor)	File:Gastrotheca excubitor.jpg
Arthroleptidae (Mivart, 1869)	8	Screeching frogs or squeakers	Buea screeching frog (Arthroleptis variabilis)	File:Buea Screeching Frog (Arthroleptis variabilis) (7706657930).jpg
Brachycephalidae (Günther, 1858)	2	Saddleback toads	Pumpkin toadlet (Brachycephalus ephippium)	File:Brachycephalus ephippium02.jpg
Brevicipitidae (Bonaparte, 1850)	5	Rain frogs	Cape rain frog (Breviceps gibbosus)	File:Breviceps gibbosus Cape Rain Froga - Cape Town 2.JPG
Bufonidae (Gray, 1825)	52	True toads	Common toad (Bufo bufo)	File:Bufo bufo couple during migration(2005).jpg
Centrolenidae (Taylor, 1951)	12	Glass frogs	Bare-hearted glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium colymbiphyllum)	File:Cricket Glass Frog - Hylinobatrachium colymbiphyllum Plantation Road.jpg
Dendrobatidae (Cope, 1865)	16	Poison dart frogs	Yellow-banded poison dart frog (Dendrobates leucomelas)	File:Gelbgebänderter Baumsteiger Dendrobates leucomelas.jpg
Dicroglossidae Anderson, 1871	14	Forked-tongue frogs	Lesser spiny frog (Quasipaa exilispinosa)	File:Paa exilispinosa.jpg
Eleutherodactylidae (Lutz, 1954)	4	Rain frogs	Cliff chirping frog (Eleutherodactylus marnockii)	File:Eleutherodactylus marnockii2.jpg
Heleophrynidae (Noble, 1931)	2	Ghost frogs	Natal ghost frog (Heleophryne natalensis)	File:Hadromophryne natalensis.jpeg
Hemiphractidae Peters, 1862	4	Horned treefrogs, backpack frogs	Banded horned treefrog (Hemiphractus fasciatus)	File:Hemiphractus fasciatus panamajuly2011 (2).jpg
Hemisotidae (Cope, 1867)	1	Shovelnose frogs	Marbled snout-burrower or mottled shovelnose frog (Hemisus marmoratus)	File:Hemisus marmoratus.jpg
Hylidae (Rafinesque, 1815)	58	Tree frogs	White's tree frog (Litoria caerulea)	File:Australia green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) crop.jpg
Hyperoliidae (Laurent, 1943)	17	Sedge frogs or bush frogs	Big-eyed tree frog (Leptopelis vermiculatus)	File:Leptopelis vermiculatus2.jpg
Leptodactylidae (Werner, 1896)	13	Southern frogs or tropical frogs	Hispaniolan ditch frog (Leptodactylus albilabris)	File:Leptodactylus albilabris.jpg
Mantellidae (Laurent, 1946)	12	-	Golden mantella (Mantella aurantiaca)	File:Golden mantella.JPG
Micrixalidae Template:Interlanguage link multi, Ohler, and Biju, 2001	1	Dancing frogs	Black torrent frog (Micrixalus saxicola)	File:Micrixalus saxicola.jpg
Microhylidae (Günther, 1858)	57	Narrow-mouthed frogs	Eastern narrow-mouthed toad (Gastrophryne carolinensis)	File:Gastrophryne carolinensis.jpg
Myobatrachidae (Schlegel In Gray, 1850)	14	Australian ground frogs	Great barred frog (Mixophyes fasciolatus)	File:M fasciolatus.jpg
Nyctibatrachidae Blommers-Schlösser, 1993	3	Robust frogs, night frogs	Beddome's night frog (Nyctibatrachus beddomii)	File:Nyctibatrachus beddomii.jpg
Ranidae (Rafinesque, 1814)	24	True frogs	American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)	File:North-American-bullfrog1.jpg
Ranixalidae Template:Interlanguage link multi, 1987	2	Leaping frogs	Amboli leaping frog {Indirana chiravasi)	File:Davidraju Amboli-Indirana 1.jpg
Rhacophoridae (Hoffman, 1932)	23	Moss frogs	Malabar gliding frog (Rhacophorus malabaricus)	File:Rhacophorus amplexus.jpg
Rhinodermatidae (Bonaparte, 1850)	2	Darwin's frogs	Darwin's frog (Rhinoderma darwinii)	File:Rhinoderma darwinii.jpg
Sooglossidae (Noble, 1931)	2	Seychelles frogs	Gardiner's Seychelles frog (Sooglossus gardineri)	File:Sechellophryne gardineri.jpg

References

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